Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a realm that manifests, here more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from governments, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the coffers of business empires, the hands of rioters. "Something is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and durable are faltering and failing."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that animates The Rose Field, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, reportedly, Pullman's concluding venture into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating world he first introduced three decades past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose geography corresponds to that of our world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and behave like us, but are paired by animal souls, essences in beast form; where the air are teeming with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, vehicles are ridden and drinks is sipped, and mature professors carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a child in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the first volume, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still recognisably the spiky and persistent protagonist of the prior volumes, but older, sadder, more careful, less sure. This limitation is amplified by her separation from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to go off in quest of that youthful part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, meeting with wonder and peril on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the religious ruling body, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister incarnation of strict, administrative malice – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's relative, who blames her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of president of the church's High Council, and is intent on using his recently acquired authority to broaden the institution's rule. Another protagonist, who rescued infant Lyra to refuge along a swollen Thames as an child in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in spycraft: he is sent to the city to learn more about his intentions. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and precious rose oil which appears mysteriously to be the source of a social and economic upheaval emanating out from Central Asia. The substance is viewed by some as a commercial product, by different parties as a scientific or mystical miracle, and by others still – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of darkness; an challenge that must be destroyed. The question of its origins, what it stands for, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like the first series, our protagonist's decisions, and her destiny, are revealed to be deeply linked with the destiny of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran mostly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they merge. Similar to His Dark Materials, her actions and her destiny are revealed to be inseparably woven with the future of the realm. Her personal mission to reunite with her soul and regain her vision becomes the key conflict in a wider war with an authoritarian regime which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to suppress freedom of thought, creativity and expression: all the internal, resistant ways in which humans can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The novel begins with the unveiling of a collection of unusual fissures in the makeup of the Earth's air: gateways that appear to lead to different dimensions. A particular window manifests to be the source of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The authority, with the antagonist at its helm, labels these windows as a threat to the religion's orthodoxy and aims to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to move from rigid rationalism and return to instinct, yet, her conviction that these locations must be preserved – that their meaning and what they provide is somehow crucial – grows. "Dust, or the extract, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a philosophical struggle between innocence and experience is set.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
