Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a realm that appears, in this volume especially, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or restructuring themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is draining from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the vaults of conglomerates, the grasp of mobs. "Something is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Things we thought were secure and strong are deteriorating and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that drives The Rose Field, which resumes where the previous book left off. This is, by all accounts, the author's last foray into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling realm he first introduced in the distant past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose geography aligns with that of this world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans look and think and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, essences in beast form; where the heavens are filled with sorceresses and gryphons, but below, transports are taken and tea is sipped, and middle-aged professors carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the first volume, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still clearly the spiky and persistent main character of the prior volumes, but older, more sorrowful, more careful, less certain. This restraint is heightened by her split from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to leave in quest of that innocent part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an trait which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which followed the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and peril on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the religious controlling power, and the author's masterfully eerie incarnation of rigid, bureaucratic malice – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of leader of the church's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his recently acquired authority to extend the church's rule. Another protagonist, who rescued baby the heroine to refuge along a overflowing river as an young boy in the first book, is now an academic with a sideline in espionage: he is dispatched to the city to find out more about Delamare's intentions. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and precious rose oil which appears somehow to be the source of a social and economic upheaval emanating out from that area. The extract is seen by various factions as a marketable product, by different parties as a scientific or mystical miracle, and by further factions – the zealous "highland figures" – as a source of evil; an insult that must be eradicated. The issue of its source, its significance, and if it should be eliminated or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Like His Dark Materials, our protagonist's decisions, and her future, are demonstrated to be deeply linked with the destiny of the universe
In its predecessor, these plots ran broadly in tandem. In the conclusion, they come together. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's movements and her fate are unveiled to be inextricably linked with the fate of the realm. Her personal mission to reunite with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the central battleground in a larger war with an controlling system which, as such authorities typically do, is attempting to stifle autonomy of reason, originality and culture: all the internal, rebellious ways in which humans can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The story begins with the finding of a collection of curious fissures in the fabric of the world's air: windows that seem to open into other worlds. A particular window manifests to be the origin of the much debated mystical extract. The Magisterium, with its leader at its leadership, designates these windows as a threat to the religion's orthodoxy and aims to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to move from strict logic and revert to instinct, yet, her certainty that these locations must be protected – that their meaning and their value is in some way crucial – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a Blakean conflict between innocence and experience is set.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the