Tings are unraveling in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that appears, here more than ever, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along new and troubling lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is draining from governments, and pooling in the halls of religious leaders, the vaults of business empires, the control of rioters. "Some force is at work, stealthily, gradually", says trader a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and durable are deteriorating and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that propels The Rose Field, which continues where the previous book ended. This is, by all accounts, the author's last foray into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling universe he first introduced three decades past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose geography maps on to that of our world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the humans appear and think and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, beings in animal form; where the air are populated with enchantresses and gryphons, but beneath those skies, transports are ridden and drinks is drunk, and older professors carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the first volume, the origin story with which Pullman began the series, is now a adult: still clearly the prickly and determined protagonist of the earlier books, but older, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her split from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to go off in pursuit of that childlike part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an trait which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with wonder and danger on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in play, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's masterfully eerie incarnation of rigid, bureaucratic evil – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. The antagonist – Lyra's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the office of leader of the Magisterium's governing body, and is intent on using his newfound power to expand the church's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who carried infant the heroine to refuge along a flooded Thames as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a sideline in spycraft: he is sent to the city to discover more about the antagonist's plans. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and costly botanical extract which manifests somehow to be the cause of a societal and economic disturbance spreading out from that area. The extract is viewed by some as a tradeable good, by others as a research-based or spiritual phenomenon, and by yet others – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a source of malevolence; an affront that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be destroyed or protected is escalating in importance.
Like the first series, our protagonist's deeds, and her destiny, are shown to be inseparably linked with the future of the world
In the previous volume, these narratives ran largely in parallel. In The Rose Field, they converge. Like the original series, Lyra's movements and her destiny are shown to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the universe. Her individual journey to rejoin with her soul and recover her creativity becomes the primary conflict in a broader war with an authoritarian regime which, as such authorities always have, is attempting to stifle independence of reason, originality and art: all the internal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The novel opens with the unveiling of a set of unusual fissures in the fabric of the Earth's sky: windows that look to give on to other worlds. A particular opening manifests to be the source of the much debated rose oil. The church, with Delamare at its head, classifies these openings as a challenge to the church's doctrine and endeavors to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from strict rationalism and return to feeling, however, her belief that these sites must be protected – that what they stand for and what they offer is mysteriously vital – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a Blakean tussle between purity and knowledge is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
