Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that manifests, here more than ever, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from governments, and pooling in the halls of religious leaders, the treasuries of corporations, the grasp of crowds. "Something is at work, very quietly, gradually", says businessman a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were stable and strong are faltering and giving way."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that propels this final volume, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, by all accounts, the author's final excursion into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling world he first unveiled in the distant past, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose landscape corresponds to that of our world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are joined by animal souls, essences in creature form; where the skies are filled with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but below, transports are caught and beverages is sipped, and middle-aged scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the spiky and persistent heroine of the prior volumes, but older, more sorrowful, more careful, more doubtful. This restraint is amplified by her division from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to leave in search of that youthful part of her which she may have forgotten (an quality which he represents as her "vision"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a wandering trek across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with wonder and risk on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the faith's controlling power, and the author's brilliantly sinister embodiment of strict, administrative malice – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who blames her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the position of head of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his recently acquired influence to broaden the church's rule. A key character, who carried baby the heroine to security along a flooded river as an child in the first book, is now an university scholar with a sideline in intelligence work: he is dispatched to a key location to discover more about the antagonist's aims. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and valuable essential oil which seems mysteriously to be the origin of a societal and financial crisis emanating out from Central Asia. The substance is regarded by certain groups as a marketable good, by alternate groups as a empirical or spiritual miracle, and by yet others – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a origin of malevolence; an challenge that must be eradicated. The issue of its origins, what it stands for, and if it should be destroyed or preserved is escalating in importance.
Like the first series, Lyra's decisions, and her destiny, are revealed to be deeply connected with the fate of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran largely in side by side. In The Rose Field, they converge. Similar to His Dark Materials, her actions and her path are revealed to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the universe. Her private journey to reconnect with her companion and recover her vision becomes the central struggle in a wider war with an oppressive system which, as such authorities often attempt, is striving to stifle independence of reason, innovation and art: all the inner, defiant ways in which people can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The story begins with the unveiling of a series of curious cracks in the makeup of the planet's atmosphere: windows that seem to open into different dimensions. An example of a portal seems to be the origin of the highly contested rose oil. The church, with its leader at its leadership, designates these portals as a challenge to the religion's orthodoxy and sets out to destroy them. As Lyra begins to shift from strict rationalism and back to feeling, nevertheless, her conviction that these locations must be protected – that their meaning and their value is in some way vital – strengthens. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or whatever we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a philosophical conflict between naivety and knowledge is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
