Things are unraveling in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that manifests, in this volume especially, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along new and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from authorities, and pooling in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of conglomerates, the grasp of rioters. "An element is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says merchant a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and solid are faltering and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Just what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which continues where its predecessor left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's last excursion into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling realm he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography corresponds to that of our world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and think and behave like us, but are joined by external spirits, souls in beast form; where the air are teeming with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but below, vehicles are ridden and tea is consumed, and middle-aged academics carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still recognisably the sharp and determined protagonist of the previous installments, but aged, sadder, more careful, less sure. This circumscription is amplified by her separation from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to leave in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she may have forgotten (an quality which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a adventurous journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with wonder and risk on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the religious ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister representation of strict, procedural evil – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – the heroine's family member, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the office of head of the Magisterium's governing body, and is intent on using his newfound power to expand the religion's control. Another protagonist, who saved infant the heroine to refuge along a swollen Thames as an child in the first book, is now an academic with a sideline in spycraft: he is sent to Geneva to discover more about his aims. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and valuable botanical extract which seems somehow to be the source of a social and economic disturbance emanating out from the region. The extract is seen by various factions as a commercial commodity, by others as a scientific or mystical miracle, and by others still – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an challenge that must be obliterated. The dilemma of where it comes from, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or protected is escalating in importance.
Similar to the first series, our protagonist's decisions, and her fate, are shown to be inseparably connected with the fate of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran broadly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they come together. Similar to the first trilogy, Lyra's choices and her destiny are revealed to be deeply linked with the destiny of the world. Her individual quest to reunite with her companion and regain her creativity becomes the central conflict in a larger conflict with an authoritarian government which, as such authorities often attempt, is attempting to stifle independence of thought, originality and art: all the internal, rebellious ways in which humans can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The book begins with the discovery of a set of strange fissures in the fabric of the Earth's atmosphere: gateways that look to lead to different dimensions. An example of a portal manifests to be the source of the highly contested botanical substance. The authority, with Delamare at its helm, designates these openings as a problem to the religion's beliefs and sets out to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to shift from inflexible rationalism and back to instinct, yet, her conviction that these sites must be protected – that what they stand for and what they offer is in some way crucial – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or whatever we label it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a poetic conflict between purity and experience is set.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
