Things are unraveling in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that manifests, in this volume especially, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from authorities, and pooling in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of conglomerates, the control of rioters. "Something is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were secure and strong are faltering and failing."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which resumes where the previous book concluded. This is, according to many, the author's concluding excursion into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling realm he first unveiled in the distant past, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose landscape corresponds to that of this world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the people appear and think and behave like us, but are paired by daemons, beings in creature form; where the air are populated with sorceresses and gryphons, but below, vehicles are ridden and tea is drunk, and mature academics carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still distinctly the prickly and persistent main character of the previous installments, but older, sadder, warier, less sure. This restraint is intensified by her division from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to depart in pursuit of that innocent part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with marvel and peril on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in play, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling embodiment of rigid, procedural evil – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's family member, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the position of president of the Magisterium's governing body, and is determined on using his recently acquired influence to expand the church's dominium. Another protagonist, who rescued infant 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 dispatched to Geneva to find out more about his plans. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and valuable rose oil which appears in some way to be the origin of a social and economic upheaval rippling out from that area. The oil is regarded by some as a marketable commodity, by different parties as a research-based or esoteric phenomenon, and by further factions – the extremist "highland figures" – as a wellspring of darkness; an affront that must be obliterated. The issue of where it comes from, its significance, and whether it should be eliminated or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Similar to the first series, our protagonist's deeds, and her future, are revealed to be deeply connected with the future of the world
In the previous volume, these plots ran broadly in side by side. In the conclusion, they converge. Similar to His Dark Materials, her actions and her fate are shown to be deeply woven with the fate of the world. Her personal journey to reunite with her daemon and regain her vision becomes the key battleground in a larger conflict with an authoritarian government which, as such regimes typically do, is attempting to suppress autonomy of reason, creativity and expression: all the inner, defiant ways in which people can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The story begins with the finding of a series of curious fissures in the structure of the world's atmosphere: gateways that seem to lead to different dimensions. One such portal seems to be the origin of the much debated botanical substance. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its leadership, designates these windows as a threat to the church's beliefs and sets out to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to move from rigid rationalism and back to instinct, yet, her belief that these places must be preserved – that their meaning and what they offer is somehow crucial – strengthens. "Dust, or the extract, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a poetic tussle between innocence and knowledge is established.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
