Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that manifests, now more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along new and troubling lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from states, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of business empires, the hands of rioters. "Some force is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says merchant a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and strong are weakening and failing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Just what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that animates The Rose Field, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, reportedly, the author's last venture into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting universe he first unveiled in the distant past, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose terrain aligns with that of our world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the people appear and reason and behave like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, souls in beast form; where the heavens are filled with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but below, transports are caught and beverages is consumed, and middle-aged scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still distinctly the spiky and tenacious main character of the prior volumes, but more mature, more sorrowful, more cautious, less sure. This limitation is amplified by her division from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to depart in pursuit of that childlike part of her which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, meeting with amazement and danger on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's masterfully eerie representation of austere, bureaucratic evil – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's family member, who faults her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of head of the authority's High Council, and is intent on using his recently acquired influence to expand the religion's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who saved infant the heroine to security along a flooded river as an young boy in the first book, is now an academic with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is assigned to the city to find out more about Delamare's plans. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and valuable rose oil which appears in some way to be the source of a societal and economic upheaval rippling out from that area. The extract is regarded by some as a marketable product, by different parties as a empirical or mystical wonder, and by yet others – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of darkness; an insult that must be eradicated. The question of where it comes from, its meaning, and if it should be removed or preserved is escalating in importance.
Like the first series, Lyra's actions, and her fate, are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the realm
In its predecessor, these plots ran mostly in parallel. In the conclusion, they merge. Similar to the first trilogy, her actions and her destiny are revealed to be inseparably entwined with the fate of the universe. Her private journey to reunite with her soul and recover her imagination becomes the primary conflict in a wider conflict with an authoritarian system which, as these systems often attempt, is striving to suppress autonomy of thinking, creativity and art: all the personal, resistant ways in which people can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The novel begins with the unveiling of a collection of unusual openings in the makeup of the planet's atmosphere: portals that look to open into other worlds. A particular opening appears to be the point of the highly contested rose oil. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its helm, designates these portals as a threat to the church's orthodoxy and aims to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to move from strict rationalism and back to feeling, yet, her certainty that these sites must be protected – that their meaning and their value is somehow crucial – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or whatever we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a poetic tussle between purity and maturity is established.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
