Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a world that seems, here more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or restructuring themselves along new and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from authorities, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the treasuries of business empires, the hands of rioters. "Some force is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and durable are faltering and giving way."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Precisely what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that animates the concluding book, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's final venture into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting realm he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose geography maps on to that of our world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the humans appear and reason and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, beings in creature form; where the air are filled with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, buses are taken and beverages is sipped, and older academics carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the first volume, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still distinctly the prickly and persistent heroine of the prior volumes, but aged, melancholic, more cautious, more doubtful. This limitation is intensified by her separation from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to leave in quest of that youthful part of her which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a wandering journey across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with amazement and risk on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in action, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling embodiment of rigid, procedural malice – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who faults her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the role of leader of the authority's governing body, and is intent on using his newfound authority to extend the institution's rule. Another protagonist, who rescued infant Lyra to refuge along a flooded Thames as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a sideline in spycraft: he is sent to the city to discover more about his plans. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and precious essential oil which appears mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and economic crisis spreading out from that area. The oil is viewed by various factions as a tradeable commodity, by others as a empirical or mystical wonder, and by others still – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a source of darkness; an insult that must be destroyed. The issue of its origins, its meaning, and whether it should be eliminated or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
As in the first series, our protagonist's deeds, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the universe
In the previous volume, these plots ran mostly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they come together. Similar to the first trilogy, her actions and her path are unveiled to be inseparably linked with the fate of the world. Her private mission to reconnect with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the primary battleground in a larger war with an authoritarian system which, as these systems often attempt, is seeking to suppress autonomy of thought, originality and art: all the personal, resistant ways in which humans can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The book begins with the discovery of a collection of strange cracks in the fabric of the planet's atmosphere: gateways that seem to lead to alternate realities. A particular window seems to be the source of the much debated botanical substance. The Magisterium, with its leader at its leadership, classifies these windows as a problem to the institution's doctrine and aims to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from rigid reason and return to instinct, nevertheless, her certainty that these locations must be defended – that their meaning and their value is somehow essential – grows. "Dust, or the substance, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or whatever we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a philosophical conflict between innocence and maturity is set.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
