Things are collapsing in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the next of the author's grand trilogies set in a universe that seems, in this volume especially, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from authorities, and accumulating in the offices of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the hands of crowds. "An element is at work, very quietly, gradually", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and strong are faltering and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Precisely what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that animates this final volume, which continues where the previous book left off. This is, according to many, the author's last foray into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting universe he first unveiled three decades past, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose terrain maps on to that of the real world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the people look and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, beings in animal form; where the skies are filled with sorceresses and gryphons, but below, buses are caught and tea is consumed, and older scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a child in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the first volume, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still recognisably the prickly and determined heroine of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, more cautious, less certain. This circumscription is heightened by her separation from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to leave in search of that innocent part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an quality which he represents as her "vision"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which saw the protagonist undertake a adventurous journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with marvel and danger on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in motion, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the religious controlling power, and the author's brilliantly sinister incarnation of rigid, procedural wickedness – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. The antagonist – our protagonist's relative, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of leader of the authority's High Council, and is set on using his recently acquired authority to broaden the religion's dominium. Another protagonist, who carried young the heroine to safety along a swollen river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in spycraft: he is dispatched to the city to learn more about Delamare's aims. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and valuable rose oil which seems mysteriously to be the source of a social and financial crisis emanating out from Central Asia. The substance is regarded by some as a commercial commodity, by different parties as a research-based or spiritual phenomenon, and by others still – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of darkness; an insult that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its origins, what it stands for, and whether it should be eliminated or preserved is escalating in importance.
Like the original trilogy, our protagonist's deeds, and her destiny, are revealed to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran broadly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they merge. Similar to the first trilogy, Lyra's choices and her path are revealed to be inextricably linked with the fate of the realm. Her private mission to reunite with her daemon and regain her imagination becomes the central struggle in a wider battle with an authoritarian government which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to quell autonomy of thinking, originality and culture: all the personal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The novel opens with the unveiling of a collection of curious openings in the fabric of the world's sky: portals that look to give on to different dimensions. A particular opening appears to be the source of the much debated rose oil. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its leadership, classifies these portals as a threat to the religion's orthodoxy and sets out to destroy them. As Lyra begins to move from strict logic and revert to instinct, however, her certainty that these sites must be protected – that their meaning and their value is somehow essential – increases. "The substance, or the extract, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a poetic conflict between naivety and experience is prepared.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
