Field of Roses: Pullman's Thrilling Conclusion to the His Dark Materials Series
Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that manifests, now more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from states, and pooling in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of conglomerates, the hands of crowds. "Something is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and strong are deteriorating and failing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Just what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that animates The Rose Field, which picks up where the previous book concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's final foray into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling universe he first introduced in the distant past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose landscape aligns with that of our world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, souls in beast form; where the heavens are populated with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, vehicles are caught and beverages is consumed, and middle-aged academics carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the first volume, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still clearly the prickly and determined heroine of the previous installments, but more mature, more sorrowful, warier, less certain. This circumscription is heightened by her division from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to leave in quest of that innocent part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an quality which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which chronicled Lyra undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with marvel and peril on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in play, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister representation of rigid, bureaucratic malice – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. The antagonist – the heroine's uncle, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the role of head of the Magisterium's governing body, and is determined on using his fresh power to extend the church's control. A key character, who carried infant the heroine to safety along a flooded Thames as an child in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in intelligence work: he is sent to Geneva to discover more about the antagonist's intentions. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and valuable essential oil which seems mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and financial disturbance rippling out from the region. The oil is regarded by some as a commercial commodity, by different parties as a scientific or esoteric miracle, and by others still – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of darkness; an challenge that must be obliterated. The dilemma of where it comes from, what it stands for, and if it should be removed or preserved is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like the first series, the heroine's actions, and her future, are revealed to be deeply linked with the fate of the world
In its predecessor, these storylines ran broadly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they come together. Like the original series, the protagonist's actions and her destiny are shown to be deeply entwined with the fate of the realm. Her individual journey to reunite with her soul and rediscover her vision becomes the primary struggle in a wider war with an oppressive government which, as such authorities often attempt, is attempting to quell freedom of thinking, innovation and expression: all the internal, rebellious ways in which people can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The novel opens with the unveiling of a series of unusual fissures in the structure of the world's sky: portals that seem to open into other worlds. A particular window seems to be the origin of the much debated botanical substance. The church, with its leader at its head, designates these windows as a challenge to the institution's doctrine and aims to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to move from inflexible reason and revert to intuition, nevertheless, her certainty that these sites must be protected – that what they stand for and their value is mysteriously crucial – increases. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or whatever we label it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical tussle between innocence and experience is established.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
