Tings are falling apart in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that appears, here more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or restructuring themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from states, and gathering in the halls of theocrats, the vaults of business empires, the grasp of crowds. "Something is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says trader a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were stable and strong are faltering and giving way."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Just what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's concluding venture into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling world he first revealed in the distant past, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose landscape maps on to that of our world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are accompanied by daemons, essences in creature form; where the skies are populated with witches and gryphons, but beneath those skies, vehicles are taken and tea is drunk, and older professors carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a child in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the prickly and persistent protagonist of the earlier books, but older, more sorrowful, more cautious, less certain. This limitation is intensified by her division from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to go off in search of that youthful part of her which she appears to have shed (an trait which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with amazement and peril on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister embodiment of austere, administrative malice – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's uncle, who faults her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of leader of the Magisterium's High Council, and is intent on using his newfound authority to broaden the religion's dominium. Another protagonist, who carried baby the heroine to safety along a swollen Thames as an child in the first book, is now an academic with a additional duty in spycraft: he is sent to the city to learn more about his intentions. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and costly botanical extract which appears somehow to be the cause of a social and economic crisis rippling out from that area. The substance is seen by various factions as a marketable commodity, by others as a research-based or mystical miracle, and by others still – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a source of malevolence; an challenge that must be obliterated. The issue of its origins, its significance, and if it should be eliminated or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Like the first series, Lyra's deeds, and her destiny, are shown to be inextricably linked with the future of the realm
In its predecessor, these plots ran largely in side by side. In this final book, they come together. Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's choices and her destiny are revealed to be deeply entwined with the future of the realm. Her individual quest to rejoin with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the central battleground in a wider battle with an controlling government which, as such authorities often attempt, is striving to stifle independence of reason, creativity and art: all the personal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The book begins with the unveiling of a set of unusual cracks in the structure of the Earth's air: gateways that appear to lead to alternate realities. An example of a window manifests to be the point of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The church, with its leader at its leadership, designates these openings as a problem to the religion's orthodoxy and sets out to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from rigid logic and revert to intuition, yet, her belief that these locations must be defended – that what they stand for and their value is mysteriously essential – strengthens. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a poetic tussle between innocence and knowledge is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
