Things are unraveling in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a world that appears, in this volume especially, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from states, and accumulating in the chambers of theocrats, the treasuries of business empires, the grasp of mobs. "Something is at work, silently, gradually", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his seat in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and strong are weakening and giving way."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that propels The Rose Field, which continues where its predecessor ended. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's final excursion into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting realm he first unveiled three decades past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a world whose geography corresponds to that of the real world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the humans look and reason and behave like us, but are paired by daemons, souls in beast form; where the heavens are populated with witches and gryphons, but beneath those skies, buses are ridden and drinks is sipped, and older professors carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the prickly and persistent heroine of the prior volumes, but older, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This circumscription is heightened by her split from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to depart in pursuit of that childlike part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an quality which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which saw Lyra undertake a wandering journey across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with marvel and risk on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the faith's governing authority, and the author's brilliantly sinister embodiment of austere, procedural evil – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who faults her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the role of head of the authority's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his newfound power to extend the religion's dominium. A key character, who saved baby Lyra to refuge along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is assigned to the city to discover more about the antagonist's intentions. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and costly essential oil which seems in some way to be the origin of a societal and economic disturbance emanating out from that area. The extract is viewed by certain groups as a commercial good, by others as a research-based or mystical miracle, and by further factions – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an challenge that must be obliterated. The question of its source, its significance, and if it should be eliminated or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
As in the first series, our protagonist's deeds, and her fate, are shown to be inseparably entwined with the destiny of the world
In the previous volume, these narratives ran broadly in side by side. In this final book, they come together. Like His Dark Materials, her choices and her path are revealed to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the universe. Her individual journey to reconnect with her companion and recover her imagination becomes the central conflict in a larger battle with an oppressive government which, as such regimes typically do, is striving to suppress independence of reason, creativity and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which humans can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The story begins with the unveiling of a collection of curious fissures in the fabric of the Earth's sky: windows that seem to open into different dimensions. One such portal seems to be the origin of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The authority, with the antagonist at its head, classifies these portals as a threat to the religion's beliefs and sets out to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from rigid reason and revert to feeling, nevertheless, her belief that these locations must be preserved – that what they stand for and what they provide is somehow vital – grows. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical tussle between purity and knowledge is set.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
