Field of Roses: Pullman's Nail-Biting Conclusion to the His Dark Materials Series
Tings are falling apart in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the next of the author's grand trilogies set in a world that seems, now more than ever, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reassembling themselves along new and troubling lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is draining from governments, and gathering in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the grasp of mobs. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an city cafe. "Things we thought were stable and durable are deteriorating and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that drives The Rose Field, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding foray into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting universe he first introduced in the distant past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a world whose geography maps on to that of this world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the people look and reason and behave like us, but are accompanied by daemons, essences in animal form; where the skies are teeming with sorceresses and gryphons, but below, transports are taken and tea is sipped, and mature academics carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still recognisably the sharp and persistent heroine of the prior volumes, but older, more sorrowful, more cautious, less certain. This restraint is intensified by her split from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to go off in search of that childlike part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an quality which he represents as her "imagination"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a adventurous trek across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with wonder and risk on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in action, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the religious ruling body, and the author's deliciously chilling embodiment of austere, procedural malice – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the office of leader of the authority's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his recently acquired influence to extend the church's control. Another protagonist, who carried baby Lyra to security along a flooded river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to the city to discover more about the antagonist's intentions. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and valuable essential oil which manifests somehow to be the origin of a social and financial upheaval emanating out from the region. The substance is seen by certain groups as a marketable commodity, by alternate groups as a scientific or spiritual miracle, and by further factions – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a source of darkness; an challenge that must be eradicated. The question of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be removed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like the first series, Lyra's deeds, and her future, are shown to be deeply connected with the destiny of the world
In the previous volume, these plots ran broadly in side by side. In this final book, they converge. Like His Dark Materials, the protagonist's movements and her path are unveiled to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the world. Her individual mission to reconnect with her soul and regain her vision becomes the central battleground in a wider battle with an oppressive system which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to quell autonomy of thought, creativity and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The novel opens with the unveiling of a set of strange fissures in the makeup of the planet's atmosphere: windows that look to open into different dimensions. An example of a window seems to be the origin of the much debated botanical substance. The church, with the antagonist at its leadership, labels these portals as a challenge to the church's doctrine and endeavors to destroy them. As Lyra begins to turn away from rigid rationalism and return to intuition, yet, her conviction that these sites must be preserved – that their significance and what they provide is in some way essential – increases. "The substance, or the substance, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a philosophical struggle between purity and experience is set.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
