Things are unraveling in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a realm that seems, now more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or restructuring themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from authorities, and gathering in the offices of theocrats, the vaults of business empires, the control of mobs. "An element is at work, very quietly, gradually", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and strong are weakening and giving way."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that animates the concluding book, which picks up where the previous book concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final venture into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling world he first revealed three decades past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose landscape maps on to that of our world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the people appear and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, beings in animal form; where the air are teeming with witches and gryphons, but underneath, vehicles are caught and beverages is consumed, and mature professors carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a child in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the first volume, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the prickly and persistent main character of the earlier books, but more mature, melancholic, warier, more doubtful. This circumscription is amplified by her separation from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to depart in quest of that childlike part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an quality which he represents as her "imagination"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which saw the protagonist undertake a adventurous voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with wonder and danger on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in play, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the church's controlling power, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister embodiment of austere, administrative evil – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of leader of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his recently acquired influence to extend the church's dominium. Another protagonist, who saved young the heroine to refuge along a swollen Thames as an child in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in espionage: he is assigned to a key location to find out more about the antagonist's intentions. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and precious essential oil which appears in some way to be the cause of a societal and financial disturbance rippling out from that area. The oil is regarded by certain groups as a commercial commodity, by others as a scientific or spiritual wonder, and by further factions – the zealous "highland figures" – as a source of darkness; an challenge that must be eradicated. The issue of its source, its significance, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is escalating in importance.
As in the original trilogy, Lyra's actions, and her destiny, are shown to be deeply linked with the destiny of the world
In its predecessor, these plots ran broadly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they merge. Similar to the original series, the protagonist's choices and her destiny are revealed to be inseparably woven with the future of the realm. Her individual quest to reconnect with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the key struggle in a wider conflict with an controlling government which, as such regimes always have, is striving to stifle freedom of reason, originality and art: all the personal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The story starts with the unveiling of a series of unusual openings in the fabric of the Earth's atmosphere: portals that appear to give on to alternate realities. A particular portal manifests to be the point of the much debated mystical extract. The Magisterium, with its leader at its helm, designates these windows as a threat to the institution's orthodoxy and aims to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from rigid reason and back to intuition, however, her conviction that these locations must be protected – that their meaning and their value is mysteriously vital – increases. "The substance, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a Blakean struggle between purity and knowledge is set.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
