Things are collapsing in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a world that manifests, here more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from states, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of business empires, the control of rioters. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and durable are weakening and failing."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the inquiry that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where the previous book left off. This is, according to many, the author's last venture into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting world he first revealed three decades past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose terrain aligns with that of our world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, souls in beast form; where the air are populated with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but below, transports are caught and beverages is consumed, and older professors carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the prequel, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still clearly the sharp and tenacious heroine of the earlier books, but more mature, sadder, more careful, less sure. This limitation is heightened by her split from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to go off in pursuit of that innocent part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an quality which he represents as her "vision"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and peril on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in motion, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the faith's ruling body, and Pullman's masterfully eerie representation of strict, administrative malice – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. The antagonist – the heroine's family member, who faults her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the role of leader of the authority's High Council, and is intent on using his fresh influence to expand the institution's dominium. Another protagonist, who rescued young Lyra to security along a overflowing river as an young boy in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in spycraft: he is sent to the city to discover more about his plans. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and precious rose oil which appears somehow to be the source of a social and economic disturbance spreading out from that area. The substance is viewed by some as a tradeable good, by different parties as a research-based or esoteric phenomenon, and by others still – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of evil; an insult that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its origins, what it stands for, and whether it should be removed or preserved is escalating in importance.
As in the first series, Lyra's actions, and her future, are revealed to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the realm
In the previous volume, these storylines ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they converge. Similar to the original series, the protagonist's choices and her fate are revealed to be deeply linked with the destiny of the realm. Her private journey to reunite with her daemon and recover her vision becomes the key struggle in a wider battle with an authoritarian government which, as these systems typically do, is striving to quell independence of reason, creativity and culture: all the internal, defiant ways in which people can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The book begins with the unveiling of a collection of unusual openings in the makeup of the planet's air: portals that look to give on to other worlds. A particular portal appears to be the point of the highly contested rose oil. The authority, with the antagonist at its helm, classifies these openings as a threat to the institution's doctrine and endeavors to destroy them. As Lyra begins to turn away from inflexible reason and revert to intuition, yet, her certainty that these sites must be protected – that their meaning and what they provide is mysteriously crucial – increases. "The substance, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a philosophical conflict between naivety and knowledge is set.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
