Tings are falling apart in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that appears, here more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reassembling themselves along new and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the grasp of crowds. "Something is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an city cafe. "Things we thought were stable and solid are faltering and giving way."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that propels this final volume, which picks up where its predecessor concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's last excursion into the elaborately built, deeply captivating universe he first unveiled three decades past, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a world whose terrain maps on to that of our world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals look and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, essences in creature form; where the skies are filled with witches and legendary creatures, but below, vehicles are caught and drinks is sipped, and middle-aged academics carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a child in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which the author began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the prickly and tenacious main character of the earlier books, but aged, melancholic, more careful, less sure. This restraint is intensified by her separation from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to depart in search of that youthful part of her which she appears to have shed (an trait which he represents as her "imagination"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with amazement and peril on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the faith's controlling power, and Pullman's deliciously chilling embodiment of strict, administrative malice – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's uncle, who faults her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of head of the church's High Council, and is set on using his newfound influence to broaden the institution's rule. Another protagonist, who rescued young Lyra to safety along a flooded river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a sideline in intelligence work: he is assigned to the city to discover more about Delamare's intentions. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and valuable rose oil which seems mysteriously to be the origin of a societal and economic disturbance rippling out from that area. The substance is regarded by various factions as a tradeable product, by others as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by further factions – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a origin of malevolence; an insult that must be eradicated. The issue of its source, its meaning, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
As in His Dark Materials, our protagonist's actions, and her future, are revealed to be deeply entwined with the fate of the universe
In its predecessor, these narratives ran mostly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they come together. As in the original series, the protagonist's actions and her destiny are shown to be inextricably linked with the fate of the realm. Her personal mission to reunite with her companion and recover her vision becomes the primary battleground in a wider conflict with an authoritarian system which, as such authorities typically do, is striving to stifle freedom of thinking, originality and art: all the inner, resistant ways in which people can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The story starts with the finding of a set of unusual cracks in the structure of the Earth's sky: portals that appear to give on to different dimensions. One such window appears to be the origin of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The authority, with the antagonist at its helm, labels these portals as a threat to the church's beliefs and sets out to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to move from strict logic and return to instinct, however, her conviction that these sites must be preserved – that their significance and what they provide is in some way vital – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or no matter what we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a philosophical struggle between purity and experience is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
