Things are collapsing in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a world that manifests, here more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from governments, and pooling in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of conglomerates, the control of mobs. "Some force is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says trader a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and solid are faltering and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, according to many, the author's final venture into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating realm he first introduced 30 years ago, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose geography maps on to that of this world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the individuals look and think and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, souls in animal form; where the air are populated with witches and gryphons, but beneath those skies, vehicles are ridden and tea is sipped, and mature scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a adult: still distinctly the spiky and tenacious main character of the earlier books, but more mature, more sorrowful, warier, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her split from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to depart in pursuit of that innocent part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he represents as her "vision"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with amazement and danger on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in play, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the religious ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister representation of strict, administrative malice – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's family member, who faults her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the role of head of the authority's governing body, and is intent on using his recently acquired power to extend the religion's control. Malcolm Polstead, who carried infant the heroine to safety along a flooded Thames as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in espionage: he is sent to a key location to learn more about Delamare's plans. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and valuable essential oil which appears in some way to be the source of a social and economic upheaval rippling out from that area. The substance is seen by certain groups as a commercial commodity, by different parties as a empirical or esoteric phenomenon, and by yet others – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of darkness; an insult that must be obliterated. The issue of where it comes from, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or protected is becoming urgent.
As in the first series, the heroine's deeds, and her future, are shown to be inseparably linked with the future of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they converge. As in the original series, the protagonist's movements and her path are revealed to be inextricably linked with the fate of the world. Her private mission to reconnect with her companion and rediscover her imagination becomes the central conflict in a broader battle with an oppressive regime which, as such regimes always have, is attempting to stifle independence of thinking, innovation and art: all the internal, rebellious ways in which people can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The book opens with the discovery of a series of unusual cracks in the makeup of the Earth's air: gateways that seem to give on to alternate realities. A particular portal appears to be the point of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The authority, with the antagonist at its head, designates these openings as a challenge to the institution's beliefs and sets out to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from rigid reason and return to intuition, however, her belief that these locations must be defended – that what they stand for and what they offer is mysteriously crucial – strengthens. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a philosophical struggle between innocence and maturity is set.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
