Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a world that manifests, in this volume especially, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or restructuring themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from authorities, and gathering in the halls of theocrats, the vaults of business empires, the control of rioters. "Something is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and solid are faltering and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that something 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, Pullman's concluding foray into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling realm he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose landscape aligns with that of this world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the people appear and reason and act like us, but are paired by daemons, essences in beast form; where the heavens are populated with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but below, buses are ridden and tea is consumed, and mature scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still distinctly the sharp and tenacious protagonist of the earlier books, but older, sadder, more cautious, less certain. This restraint is heightened by her separation from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to depart in quest of that innocent part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an quality which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering 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 religious ruling body, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of austere, administrative wickedness – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. The antagonist – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of president of the church's governing body, and is determined on using his newfound authority to extend the religion's control. A key character, who saved young the heroine to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a secondary role in spycraft: he is assigned to a key location to learn more about the antagonist's aims. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and precious botanical extract which manifests mysteriously to be the source of a societal and economic upheaval spreading out from the region. The extract is viewed by certain groups as a commercial product, by alternate groups as a empirical or mystical miracle, and by others still – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of evil; an affront that must be obliterated. The issue of its origins, its significance, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Similar to the first series, our protagonist's decisions, and her future, are revealed to be inseparably connected with the fate of the world
In the previous volume, these plots ran mostly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they merge. Like His Dark Materials, the protagonist's actions and her path are shown to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the realm. Her personal quest to reconnect with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the key conflict in a broader war with an oppressive system which, as such authorities often attempt, is striving to suppress freedom of reason, innovation and art: all the inner, rebellious ways in which individuals can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The novel opens with the discovery of a set of strange cracks in the structure of the Earth's atmosphere: gateways that look to open into other worlds. One such window seems to be the origin of the much debated mystical extract. The church, with the antagonist at its helm, classifies these portals as a challenge to the religion's beliefs and endeavors to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from strict rationalism and back to instinct, nevertheless, her conviction that these sites must be protected – that what they stand for and what they offer is mysteriously essential – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a philosophical conflict between naivety and maturity is prepared.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
