Things are unraveling in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a world that seems, now more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is draining from states, and accumulating in the offices of theocrats, the vaults of corporations, the control of mobs. "Something is at work, silently, very subtly", says merchant a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were secure and strong are weakening and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that drives the concluding book, which picks up where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's concluding venture into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting realm he first revealed three decades past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose terrain maps on to that of this world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the people look and think and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, souls in creature form; where the skies are teeming with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but below, vehicles are taken and drinks is consumed, and mature scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the first volume, the origin story with which Pullman began the series, is now a young woman: still recognisably the spiky and persistent main character of the prior volumes, but older, sadder, warier, less certain. This restraint is intensified by her division from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to depart in search of that youthful part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an trait which he represents as her "creativity"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, meeting with marvel and peril on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the faith's governing authority, and the author's brilliantly sinister representation of strict, procedural evil – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. The antagonist – the heroine's family member, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the role of leader of the church's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his recently acquired power to expand the institution's control. A key character, who rescued young the heroine to safety along a flooded river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a sideline in intelligence work: he is dispatched to a key location to find out more about Delamare's aims. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and costly rose oil which seems in some way to be the origin of a societal and economic crisis spreading out from the region. The extract is viewed by some as a marketable product, by others as a research-based or esoteric wonder, and by yet others – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a origin of darkness; an insult that must be destroyed. The question of where it comes from, its significance, and if it should be removed or preserved is becoming urgent.
Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's deeds, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inseparably connected with the destiny of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran broadly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they come together. Like His Dark Materials, the protagonist's choices and her fate are revealed to be deeply entwined with the fate of the world. Her individual journey to reunite with her companion and rediscover her vision becomes the key conflict in a broader conflict with an authoritarian regime which, as these systems often attempt, is striving to stifle independence of reason, creativity and culture: all the personal, defiant ways in which people can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The story opens with the discovery of a set of strange openings in the makeup of the planet's air: gateways that look to open into other worlds. An example of a opening manifests to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The authority, with the antagonist at its leadership, designates these portals as a threat to the church's doctrine and endeavors to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to move from strict logic and return to intuition, however, her conviction that these sites must be protected – that what they stand for and what they offer is somehow essential – strengthens. "Dust, or the substance, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we name it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a philosophical conflict between purity and knowledge is set.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
