Tings are collapsing in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that appears, now more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reassembling themselves along novel and troubling lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from states, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the grasp of rioters. "Some force is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says merchant a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and strong are faltering and giving way."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Exactly what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which continues where its predecessor concluded. This is, according to many, the author's final venture into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting realm he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography aligns with that of our world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, souls in creature form; where the heavens are teeming with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but below, buses are ridden and beverages is sipped, and mature professors carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still clearly the prickly and tenacious main character of the prior volumes, but aged, melancholic, more careful, more doubtful. This circumscription is intensified by her division from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to go off in pursuit of that innocent part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an quality which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a adventurous trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with amazement and risk on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the religious governing authority, and the author's masterfully eerie incarnation of rigid, bureaucratic wickedness – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's uncle, who blames her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the position of head of the Magisterium's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound influence to expand the church's rule. Another protagonist, who carried baby the heroine to security along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to the city to discover more about his aims. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and precious essential oil which seems in some way to be the origin of a societal and financial crisis rippling out from the region. The oil is regarded by various factions as a marketable good, by others as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by others still – the extremist "highland figures" – as a wellspring of darkness; an affront that must be destroyed. The question of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be eliminated or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Similar to the original trilogy, our protagonist's actions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be deeply linked with the destiny of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran largely in parallel. In The Rose Field, they converge. Like the first trilogy, her actions and her destiny are unveiled to be inextricably linked with the future of the realm. Her personal mission to rejoin with her companion and rediscover her imagination becomes the primary battleground in a larger battle with an oppressive government which, as these systems often attempt, is striving to quell autonomy of thought, originality and culture: all the personal, defiant ways in which individuals can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The novel starts with the unveiling of a collection of unusual openings in the makeup of the world's air: gateways that look to lead to different dimensions. An example of a window seems to be the source of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The authority, with Delamare at its head, designates these windows as a challenge to the religion's beliefs and aims to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from rigid logic and revert to intuition, however, her belief that these places must be protected – that their significance and what they provide is mysteriously crucial – increases. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical tussle between naivety and experience is established.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
