Things are collapsing in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from states, and pooling in the chambers of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the hands of mobs. "Something is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and strong are weakening and failing."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that drives The Rose Field, which picks up where the previous book concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's last excursion into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating realm he first introduced 30 years ago, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose geography aligns with that of the real world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans look and reason and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, beings in animal form; where the air are filled with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, vehicles are ridden and drinks is consumed, and middle-aged scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the first volume, the prequel with which Pullman began the series, is now a young woman: still clearly the sharp and determined heroine of the prior volumes, but aged, more sorrowful, more careful, more doubtful. This limitation is heightened by her division from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to go off in quest of that youthful part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an quality which he represents as her "imagination"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with wonder and risk on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in motion, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the religious governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling embodiment of austere, bureaucratic evil – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's relative, who blames her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the office of leader of the church's governing body, and is determined on using his recently acquired influence to expand the religion's control. Another protagonist, who carried young Lyra to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an young boy in the first book, is now an university scholar with a sideline in espionage: he is dispatched to the city to find out more about Delamare's plans. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and precious essential oil which appears mysteriously to be the source of a social and economic upheaval spreading out from Central Asia. The oil is viewed by some as a marketable good, by different parties as a research-based or esoteric miracle, and by others still – the zealous "highland figures" – as a origin of malevolence; an insult that must be eradicated. The question of its origins, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is escalating in importance.
Similar to the original trilogy, Lyra's deeds, and her future, are revealed to be inseparably connected with the destiny of the world
In the previous volume, these storylines ran largely in tandem. In The Rose Field, they converge. Like His Dark Materials, the protagonist's actions and her destiny are unveiled to be inextricably linked with the future of the world. Her individual quest to reconnect with her soul and recover her creativity becomes the primary conflict in a wider battle with an controlling government which, as these systems always have, is attempting to suppress freedom of reason, innovation and culture: all the personal, resistant ways in which humans can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The novel starts with the discovery of a set of curious openings in the fabric of the Earth's sky: portals that seem to lead to other worlds. One such window seems to be the point of the much debated rose oil. The authority, with its leader at its helm, designates these openings as a threat to the institution's beliefs and sets out to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to shift from strict rationalism and revert to intuition, nevertheless, her conviction that these places must be protected – that their significance and what they offer is mysteriously crucial – strengthens. "Dust, or the substance, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we label it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a Blakean conflict between innocence and knowledge is established.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
