Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a realm that appears, now more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reorganizing themselves along new and troubling lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from authorities, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the control of crowds. "An element is at work, silently, gradually", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and durable are weakening and giving way."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Exactly what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that drives The Rose Field, which continues where the previous book left off. This is, according to many, the author's last foray into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating world he first unveiled three decades past, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose terrain maps on to that of this world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans look and reason and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, essences in beast form; where the heavens are filled with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, vehicles are taken and beverages is drunk, and older scholars carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the prequel, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a adult: still recognisably the spiky and tenacious main character of the prior volumes, but more mature, more sorrowful, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is amplified by her separation from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that innocent part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an trait which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, meeting with marvel and danger on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the faith's controlling power, and Pullman's masterfully eerie embodiment of rigid, administrative wickedness – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's uncle, who blames her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the position of head of the Magisterium's governing body, and is set on using his newfound influence to broaden the religion's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who saved infant Lyra to safety along a overflowing Thames as an young boy in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in spycraft: he is dispatched to Geneva to find out more about Delamare's plans. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and precious essential oil which manifests in some way to be the cause of a societal and financial upheaval spreading out from Central Asia. The extract is regarded by certain groups as a commercial product, by different parties as a scientific or spiritual phenomenon, and by further factions – the extremist "highland figures" – as a wellspring of evil; an challenge that must be destroyed. The issue of its source, what it stands for, and whether it should be eliminated or preserved is becoming urgent.
Like the original trilogy, Lyra's deeds, and her destiny, are shown to be inextricably connected with the fate of the realm
In its predecessor, these storylines ran mostly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they come together. As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's movements and her fate are revealed to be inseparably woven with the fate of the world. Her individual mission to reconnect with her daemon and rediscover her creativity becomes the central struggle in a broader conflict with an controlling system which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to stifle autonomy of thinking, originality and expression: all the inner, rebellious ways in which people can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The story opens with the finding of a collection of strange fissures in the fabric of the planet's air: portals that seem to give on to alternate realities. A particular window appears to be the point of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The authority, with its leader at its head, labels these openings as a threat to the church's beliefs and endeavors to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from rigid logic and revert to feeling, nevertheless, her conviction that these locations must be defended – that their significance and what they offer is somehow essential – strengthens. "The substance, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a Blakean struggle between innocence and experience is prepared.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
