Things are unraveling in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that manifests, now more than ever, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or restructuring themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from authorities, and accumulating in the chambers of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the control of rioters. "Some force is at work, silently, very subtly", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and durable are deteriorating and failing."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that animates the concluding book, which picks up where the previous book left off. This is, by all accounts, the author's final excursion into the elaborately built, deeply captivating universe he first introduced 30 years ago, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a world whose geography corresponds to that of our world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans look and think and behave like us, but are joined by external spirits, beings in beast form; where the air are teeming with witches and legendary creatures, but underneath, transports are caught and drinks is consumed, and mature scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the first volume, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a adult: still recognisably the sharp and determined protagonist of the prior volumes, but aged, sadder, more cautious, less certain. This limitation is heightened by her separation from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to go off in pursuit of that youthful part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he represents as her "vision"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a adventurous journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, meeting with wonder and risk on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister representation of rigid, administrative malice – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the position of head of the authority's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his recently acquired influence to broaden the religion's rule. Another protagonist, who saved young Lyra to security along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in espionage: he is sent to Geneva to discover more about his plans. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which manifests in some way to be the cause of a social and economic upheaval rippling out from that area. The substance is regarded by various factions as a tradeable commodity, by different parties as a research-based or mystical phenomenon, and by yet others – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of darkness; an challenge that must be destroyed. The question of where it comes from, its meaning, and if it should be eliminated or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to the first series, our protagonist's actions, and her fate, are revealed to be deeply linked with the destiny of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran largely in tandem. In The Rose Field, they converge. As in the first trilogy, Lyra's choices and her fate are unveiled to be inseparably entwined with the future of the universe. Her personal journey to reconnect with her soul and regain her imagination becomes the primary battleground in a broader battle with an authoritarian government which, as such authorities typically do, is striving to suppress freedom of reason, creativity and culture: all the internal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The book begins with the unveiling of a set of unusual fissures in the fabric of the world's atmosphere: windows that look to give on to other worlds. One such portal appears to be the origin of the highly contested botanical substance. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its head, classifies these openings as a threat to the religion's orthodoxy and aims to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to move from strict logic and return to intuition, nevertheless, her conviction that these locations must be preserved – that their significance and what they offer is mysteriously essential – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or whatever we label it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a Blakean conflict between innocence and maturity is established.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
