Things are falling apart in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the next of the author's masterful trilogies set in a realm that seems, in this volume especially, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from governments, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the hands of mobs. "Some force is at work, silently, very subtly", says merchant a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and durable are faltering and giving way."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Just what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that animates The Rose Field, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding foray into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating world he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography corresponds to that of the real world, but whose chronicles 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 skies are filled with witches and mythical beasts, but underneath, buses are ridden and tea is sipped, and mature scholars carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a child in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the prequel, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still distinctly the sharp and determined main character of the earlier books, but older, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This circumscription is intensified by her split from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to leave in search of that childlike part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an trait which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with amazement and peril on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in play, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the religious ruling body, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister representation of rigid, bureaucratic evil – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's family member, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the position of president of the Magisterium's governing body, and is set on using his recently acquired influence to expand the church's dominium. A key character, who rescued young Lyra to refuge along a flooded river as an child in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in spycraft: he is sent to a key location to learn more about Delamare's aims. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and costly botanical extract which appears in some way to be the source of a societal and economic disturbance rippling out from that area. The extract is regarded by certain groups as a commercial product, by alternate groups as a empirical or mystical wonder, and by yet others – the extremist "highland figures" – as a wellspring of evil; an insult that must be destroyed. The dilemma of its origins, its significance, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
As in the original trilogy, our protagonist's decisions, and her fate, are revealed to be deeply connected with the future of the realm
In the previous volume, these narratives ran mostly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they converge. As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's movements and her fate are unveiled to be inseparably woven with the destiny of the universe. Her private quest to reunite with her daemon and rediscover her vision becomes the central battleground in a broader war with an authoritarian government which, as such regimes often attempt, is striving to suppress autonomy of thinking, originality and culture: all the personal, resistant ways in which humans can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The novel starts with the unveiling of a set of curious openings in the fabric of the planet's sky: gateways that seem to open into alternate realities. One such portal seems to be the source of the highly contested botanical substance. The authority, with its leader at its head, labels these portals as a problem to the institution's orthodoxy and endeavors to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to shift from strict logic and back to instinct, nevertheless, her certainty that these places must be protected – that their meaning and what they provide is in some way vital – increases. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a poetic struggle between naivety and maturity is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
