Things are unraveling in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that manifests, in this volume especially, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from states, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the coffers of conglomerates, the control of rioters. "Some force is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says trader a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his post in an city cafe. "Things we thought were stable and solid are faltering and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Exactly what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that animates this final volume, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's last excursion into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling realm he first revealed three decades past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography maps on to that of the real world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans look and think and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, beings in beast form; where the air are populated with witches and mythical beasts, but below, buses are taken and tea is sipped, and middle-aged professors carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the first volume, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a adult: still distinctly the spiky and tenacious protagonist of the previous installments, but aged, more sorrowful, more cautious, less sure. This limitation is intensified by her split from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that innocent part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with marvel and peril on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in play, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's masterfully eerie representation of rigid, procedural malice – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's relative, who faults her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the position of head of the authority's High Council, and is intent on using his fresh power to broaden the religion's rule. Another protagonist, who rescued infant Lyra to security along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in espionage: he is sent to a key location to learn more about Delamare's aims. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and precious essential oil which manifests in some way to be the source of a societal and economic crisis emanating out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by certain groups as a commercial good, by different parties as a research-based or mystical wonder, and by others still – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a source of darkness; an insult that must be eradicated. The question of where it comes from, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or preserved is becoming urgent.
As in the first series, Lyra's actions, and her future, are revealed to be inextricably linked with the future of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran largely in side by side. In The Rose Field, they converge. Like the original series, the protagonist's actions and her path are unveiled to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the world. Her personal journey to rejoin with her soul and rediscover her vision becomes the primary battleground in a wider conflict with an controlling system which, as these systems always have, is striving to suppress freedom of reason, innovation and culture: all the internal, rebellious ways in which humans can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The book opens with the unveiling of a series of curious openings in the fabric of the world's air: gateways that appear to lead to alternate realities. A particular window appears to be the source of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The authority, with its leader at its helm, labels these portals as a challenge to the church's orthodoxy and sets out to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to move from inflexible rationalism and return to intuition, yet, her belief that these sites must be protected – that what they stand for and their value is somehow vital – strengthens. "Dust, or the extract, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a poetic struggle between naivety and knowledge is set.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
