Tings are unraveling in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a world that manifests, in this volume especially, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from governments, and pooling in the chambers of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the control of rioters. "Some force is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and durable are weakening and failing."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Just what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final foray into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting world he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a world whose landscape aligns with that of the real world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the humans appear and think and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, souls in beast form; where the skies are teeming with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but below, transports are taken and drinks is drunk, and middle-aged scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the prequel, the origin story with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still clearly the prickly and determined main character of the previous installments, but more mature, more sorrowful, more careful, less sure. This circumscription is heightened by her separation from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to go off in search of that innocent part of her which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he represents as her "vision"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and danger on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's masterfully eerie representation of strict, procedural evil – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – the heroine's uncle, who faults her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the office of head of the Magisterium's governing body, and is intent on using his newfound influence to extend the church's dominium. A key character, who carried baby Lyra to safety along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in spycraft: he is sent to a key location to find out more about the antagonist's plans. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and precious essential oil which appears in some way to be the origin of a social and financial disturbance rippling out from the region. The substance is regarded by certain groups as a marketable good, by alternate groups as a scientific or spiritual miracle, and by further factions – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of darkness; an insult that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its source, its significance, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Similar to His Dark Materials, the heroine's deeds, and her future, are demonstrated to be deeply entwined with the fate of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran largely in tandem. In The Rose Field, they merge. Similar to His Dark Materials, her choices and her path are shown to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the universe. Her private mission to rejoin with her soul and rediscover her vision becomes the key battleground in a broader war with an oppressive system which, as such authorities always have, is seeking to quell independence of thought, creativity and culture: all the internal, rebellious ways in which humans can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The book starts with the finding of a set of unusual fissures in the fabric of the planet's sky: windows that seem to open into alternate realities. An example of a opening seems to be the origin of the much debated mystical extract. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its head, classifies these windows as a threat to the church's orthodoxy and sets out to destroy them. As Lyra begins to move from rigid rationalism and back to instinct, however, her conviction that these locations must be defended – that their meaning and what they provide is in some way essential – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a philosophical conflict between purity and experience is set.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
