Things are falling apart in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that manifests, here more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from governments, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the treasuries of corporations, the grasp of crowds. "An element is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and solid are weakening and failing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Exactly what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that drives the concluding book, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, by all accounts, the author's last foray into the elaborately built, deeply captivating world he first introduced 30 years ago, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose geography corresponds to that of our world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans look and reason and behave like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, beings in beast form; where the air are filled with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, vehicles are ridden and tea is sipped, and mature academics carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the prequel, the prequel with which Pullman began the series, is now a adult: still recognisably the prickly and persistent heroine of the prior volumes, but more mature, melancholic, more careful, less sure. This limitation is intensified by her division from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to leave in search of that childlike part of her which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and risk on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the church's ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister embodiment of strict, procedural wickedness – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's family member, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the role of leader of the church's governing body, and is set on using his newfound power to extend the institution's control. A key character, who rescued infant Lyra to security along a flooded river as an child in the first book, is now an academic with a additional duty in spycraft: he is assigned to Geneva to find out more about Delamare's aims. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and valuable botanical extract which appears mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and economic upheaval rippling out from the region. The oil is seen by some as a tradeable product, by others as a research-based or spiritual miracle, and by yet others – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of malevolence; an challenge that must be obliterated. The question of its source, what it stands for, and whether it should be removed or protected is escalating in importance.
As in the first series, our protagonist's actions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the world
In the previous volume, these plots ran mostly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they come together. Like the first trilogy, Lyra's actions and her fate are unveiled to be inseparably entwined with the future of the universe. Her personal mission to rejoin with her companion and rediscover her vision becomes the key struggle in a broader battle with an oppressive government which, as these systems typically do, is attempting to quell autonomy of thinking, creativity and expression: all the internal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The story begins with the unveiling of a series of strange cracks in the fabric of the world's air: windows that seem to open into alternate realities. One such portal manifests to be the source of the much debated botanical substance. The Magisterium, with its leader at its helm, designates these windows as a challenge to the church's orthodoxy and endeavors to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from strict rationalism and revert to intuition, nevertheless, her certainty that these places must be preserved – that their meaning and what they provide is mysteriously vital – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a Blakean struggle between purity and knowledge is established.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
