Things are collapsing in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a realm that manifests, now more than ever, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reorganizing themselves along novel and troubling lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from authorities, and gathering in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the grasp of crowds. "Some force is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and durable are weakening and giving way."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that drives this final volume, which resumes where the previous book ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's last venture into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting universe he first unveiled three decades past, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose terrain maps on to that of our world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the people look and think and act like us, but are paired by daemons, essences in creature form; where the air are teeming with witches and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, vehicles are caught and drinks is consumed, and middle-aged scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the sharp and determined heroine of the earlier books, but aged, sadder, warier, more doubtful. This limitation is heightened by her division from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to depart in quest of that youthful part of her which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with marvel and danger on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the religious ruling body, and the author's masterfully eerie representation of strict, administrative evil – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who faults her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the position of head of the Magisterium's High Council, and is set on using his recently acquired influence to extend the church's rule. Another protagonist, who saved infant the heroine to safety along a overflowing river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to Geneva to find out more about Delamare's plans. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and precious botanical extract which manifests in some way to be the source of a societal and economic disturbance spreading out from that area. The extract is seen by various factions as a marketable product, by different parties as a empirical or spiritual phenomenon, and by others still – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an affront that must be obliterated. The issue of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to the first series, Lyra's decisions, and her destiny, are shown to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran mostly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they converge. Similar to the original series, the protagonist's actions and her path are revealed to be deeply woven with the destiny of the world. Her individual mission to reunite with her soul and regain her imagination becomes the central battleground in a larger battle with an controlling regime which, as such regimes often attempt, is attempting to stifle independence of reason, originality and culture: all the inner, resistant ways in which individuals can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The story starts with the unveiling of a set of strange cracks in the structure of the Earth's atmosphere: gateways that seem to open into different dimensions. One such portal seems to be the origin of the much debated mystical extract. The church, with its leader at its leadership, labels these windows as a threat to the church's orthodoxy and endeavors to destroy them. As the heroine begins to shift from rigid reason and revert to instinct, yet, her belief that these locations must be defended – that their significance and what they offer is mysteriously vital – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a poetic conflict between innocence and knowledge is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
