Things are falling apart in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the next of the author's grand trilogies set in a world that seems, here more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is ruining 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 halls of theocrats, the treasuries of business empires, the control of mobs. "An element is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says trader a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his post in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and durable are deteriorating and giving way."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Just what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, according to many, the author's last excursion into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling world he first unveiled in the distant past, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose terrain corresponds to that of our world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and reason and behave like us, but are accompanied by daemons, essences in animal form; where the air are populated with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, buses are caught and drinks is drunk, and older academics carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a child in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still clearly the spiky and determined heroine of the earlier books, but more mature, melancholic, more cautious, less sure. This circumscription is intensified by her separation from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to leave in pursuit of that youthful part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a adventurous journey across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with amazement and risk on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the faith's ruling body, and the author's deliciously chilling embodiment of strict, bureaucratic wickedness – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's uncle, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the office of leader of the authority's ruling assembly, and is set on using his fresh power to broaden the religion's control. A key character, who saved baby Lyra to security along a overflowing Thames as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a sideline in spycraft: he is assigned to the city to discover more about Delamare's plans. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and valuable rose oil which manifests mysteriously to be the origin of a social and economic disturbance emanating out from the region. The extract is regarded by various factions as a tradeable product, by alternate groups as a scientific or spiritual phenomenon, and by others still – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of evil; an affront that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its origins, its significance, and if it should be removed or protected is becoming urgent.
Like the first series, Lyra's decisions, and her destiny, are shown to be deeply linked with the destiny of the world
In its predecessor, these plots ran mostly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they come together. Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's movements and her destiny are revealed to be inseparably woven with the future of the realm. Her personal mission to reconnect with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the central battleground in a broader battle with an controlling regime which, as such regimes typically do, is striving to suppress autonomy of thought, originality and culture: all the inner, defiant ways in which people can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The novel begins with the unveiling of a set of curious fissures in the structure of the planet's air: portals that appear to lead to alternate realities. A particular window appears to be the origin of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The authority, with Delamare at its leadership, classifies these windows as a challenge to the church's doctrine and aims to destroy them. As Lyra begins to turn away from rigid reason and return to instinct, yet, her certainty that these places must be protected – that what they stand for and their value is somehow crucial – grows. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or whatever we name it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a philosophical tussle between naivety and experience is set.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
