Things are collapsing in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the next of the author's masterful trilogies set in a world that manifests, now more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along new and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the vaults of conglomerates, the grasp of crowds. "Some force is at work, very quietly, gradually", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were stable and solid are weakening and failing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Just what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that drives The Rose Field, which resumes where the previous book left off. This is, according to many, the author's last venture into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling universe he first unveiled three decades past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose geography maps on to that of the real world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the individuals look and think and act like us, but are joined by daemons, souls in beast form; where the skies are teeming with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, vehicles are caught and beverages is drunk, and older professors carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still clearly the spiky and tenacious protagonist of the previous installments, but aged, melancholic, more careful, less certain. This restraint is intensified by her separation from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to leave in pursuit of that youthful part of her which she may have forgotten (an trait which he represents as her "vision"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with wonder and risk on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in play, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of strict, procedural malice – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. The antagonist – the heroine's relative, who faults her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the office of head of the authority's High Council, and is determined on using his fresh influence to broaden the institution's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who carried infant Lyra to refuge along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in espionage: he is dispatched to Geneva to learn more about Delamare's plans. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and costly rose oil which seems somehow to be the origin of a societal and financial crisis emanating out from Central Asia. The extract is viewed by some as a commercial good, by others as a research-based or spiritual miracle, and by yet others – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a source of evil; an affront that must be destroyed. The issue of its origins, its meaning, and whether it should be eliminated or preserved is escalating in importance.
Similar to the original trilogy, our protagonist's deeds, and her future, are shown to be inextricably linked with the future of the realm
In its predecessor, these plots ran broadly in parallel. In this final book, they merge. As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions and her fate are shown to be inseparably entwined with the fate of the universe. Her personal mission to rejoin with her soul and recover her creativity becomes the key conflict in a wider conflict with an controlling system which, as such regimes always have, is striving to stifle autonomy of reason, originality and culture: all the inner, rebellious ways in which individuals can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The novel begins with the discovery of a set of curious fissures in the makeup of the world's atmosphere: portals that seem to give on to alternate realities. A particular portal seems to be the origin of the much debated botanical substance. The church, with its leader at its head, designates these windows as a problem to the religion's beliefs and endeavors to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to move from rigid rationalism and return to instinct, however, her belief that these sites must be protected – that their meaning and what they provide is somehow essential – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a philosophical struggle between innocence and knowledge is established.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
