Tings are unraveling in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reassembling themselves along new and troubling lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from states, and accumulating in the chambers of theocrats, the coffers of business empires, the control of crowds. "Something is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and strong are faltering and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that propels The Rose Field, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's last venture into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating world he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography aligns with that of the real world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the people appear and reason and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, beings in animal form; where the air are populated with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, transports are caught and tea is drunk, and middle-aged academics carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the first volume, the origin story with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the prickly and determined heroine of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is intensified by her split from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to depart in quest of that youthful part of her which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with marvel and risk on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in play, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's masterfully eerie representation of rigid, administrative malice – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's family member, who blames her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the position of leader of the Magisterium's High Council, and is set on using his recently acquired authority to expand the church's control. A key character, who saved infant the heroine to security along a flooded river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a sideline in espionage: he is sent to the city to discover more about the antagonist's intentions. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and valuable botanical extract which seems mysteriously to be the origin of a social and financial crisis rippling out from the region. The extract is regarded by some as a tradeable good, by others as a research-based or mystical wonder, and by further factions – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of darkness; an insult that must be destroyed. The dilemma of its source, its meaning, and if it should be removed or preserved is becoming urgent.
Like the first series, our protagonist's actions, and her future, are shown to be deeply entwined with the fate of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran largely in parallel. In this final book, they come together. Similar to the original series, her actions and her destiny are unveiled to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the world. Her individual mission to rejoin with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the key battleground in a larger battle with an controlling regime which, as such regimes often attempt, is striving to stifle independence of thinking, originality and expression: all the internal, resistant ways in which individuals can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The novel begins with the discovery of a collection of curious openings in the fabric of the world's atmosphere: gateways that look to give on to other worlds. An example of a window seems to be the origin of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its head, classifies these portals as a threat to the institution's orthodoxy and sets out to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to move from strict reason and revert to instinct, yet, her certainty that these sites must be protected – that their meaning and their value is somehow vital – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we call it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical conflict between innocence and maturity is prepared.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
