Things are falling apart in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a universe that seems, in this volume especially, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Organizations are failing, or reassembling themselves along novel and troubling lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from authorities, and gathering in the halls of theocrats, the vaults of corporations, the grasp of rioters. "Some force is at work, silently, gradually", says merchant a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his post in an city cafe. "Things we thought were firm and durable are faltering and giving way."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that animates The Rose Field, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, reportedly, the author's final excursion into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling universe he first revealed in the distant past, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a world whose terrain corresponds to that of our world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the people look and reason and behave like us, but are paired by daemons, beings in animal form; where the heavens are teeming with enchantresses and gryphons, but below, vehicles are ridden and drinks is consumed, and older scholars carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still distinctly the spiky and persistent protagonist of the prior volumes, but more mature, sadder, warier, more doubtful. This restraint is amplified by her separation from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to leave in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous trek across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and risk on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the religious governing authority, and the author's masterfully eerie incarnation of strict, procedural wickedness – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's family member, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the role of leader of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his newfound authority to broaden the institution's rule. Another protagonist, who saved infant the heroine to safety along a swollen river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a sideline in spycraft: he is sent to Geneva to learn more about the antagonist's plans. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and costly essential oil which manifests mysteriously to be the cause of a social and economic crisis spreading out from that area. The extract is seen by some as a commercial good, by others as a empirical or mystical wonder, and by further factions – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of evil; an affront that must be obliterated. The issue of its source, its significance, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
As in the first series, our protagonist's deeds, and her fate, are shown to be inseparably connected with the destiny of the realm
In the previous volume, these plots ran largely in parallel. In the conclusion, they come together. Similar to the first trilogy, her choices and her destiny are revealed to be inseparably woven with the destiny of the realm. Her personal quest to rejoin with her soul and recover her creativity becomes the central struggle in a broader conflict with an oppressive system which, as these systems often attempt, is striving to suppress freedom of thought, originality and culture: all the personal, resistant ways in which humans can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The novel opens with the discovery of a series of unusual openings in the fabric of the Earth's sky: gateways that appear to lead to alternate realities. An example of a window manifests to be the source of the highly contested rose oil. The authority, with the antagonist at its head, classifies these windows as a problem to the institution's doctrine and sets out to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to move from rigid reason and return to intuition, nevertheless, her belief that these locations must be protected – that what they stand for and their value is mysteriously vital – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a philosophical conflict between naivety and experience is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
