The Rose Field is the third and final entry in The Book of Dust and possibly the last book featuring Philip Pullman’s most famous character and world.
The Rose Field picks up where The Secret Commonwealth left off. Lyra Silvertongue arrives in the abandoned city of al-Khan al-Azraq, searching for her dæmon, who has run off to search for Lyra’s imagination. Malcolm Polstod is in a prison infirmary after being shot during a riot. In Geneva, Marcel Delamare learns about openings to other worlds across the globe and sends an army officer to destroy them. Lyra and Malcom set out to go to the mysterious building in the middle of the desert, whilst Delamare builds up an army to go on an expedition into Central Asia.
I am a fan of the His Dark Materials trilogy: I even wrote an article about how I would adapt the series as a film trilogy if I ever got the chance to make it. The world and story Pullman created were fascinating, had fantastic characters, and incorporated complex ideas about religion, philosophy and theoretical physics. The series ended on a bittersweet note, yet it was conclusive, as Lyra and Will saved all of reality at the age of 11. Anything Lyra did after that would be underwhelming: I even made that point in Pop Culture Maniacs’ podcast episode on His Dark Materials.
Legacy sequels have proven themselves to be tricky beasts. The Book of Dust was no exception. I enjoyed La Belle Sauvage, which worked as a prequel and a standalone story. I had some issues, but I put it down to my personal head canon. The Secret Commonwealth suffered from being long and meandering, and showed Lyra and Pan’s lives after the events of His Dark Materials ended up being fairly depressing due to their loathing for each other. The Rose Field had similar issues to its predecessor.
The fan reaction towards The Rose Field has been mixed. It’s easy to find negative reviews on Goodreads or Reddit, and I share many of their opinions. The Rose Field felt like it was going out of its way to undo the ending of The Amber Spyglass. At the end of The Amber Spyglass it was revealed that windows to other universes had a detrimental effect since Dust leaked through them, and no one could live outside their own universe for a prolonged period. Lyra and Will had to sacrifice their love for each other to protect the whole multiverse. In The Rose Field, Lyra came to the conclusion that Xaphania lied to her and set out to protect the opening in the Red Building, and that if the Magisterium want to destroy the remaining portals, then she must protect them. It’s a contradiction that The Rose Field never addresses.
The fate of a fan favourite character was revealed in the middle of the novel. This was indicative of The Rose Field’s issues since this character was given an unceremonious end, which led to the question of why this was done. The book would have been better off not mentioning this character at all.
The Rose Field managed to do a writing paradox: it was overlong and underdeveloped. The hardback version is a chucky beast at 621 pages, and it is filled with lots of ideas and storylines that ended up being unresolved. An example of this was when a character died, but their dæmon didn’t. This should have been a shocking, paradigm-shifting event; it ended up being a plot cul-de-sac. As the novel was seemingly concluding, Pullman ended up adding a new story idea. One of the questions in the trilogy was what the Rusakov Field actually was, and the explanation was unsatisfactory. Early in the novel, Lyra was told to find the Alkahest, another threat to the universe’s humanity, which was forgotten for most of the adventure.
Pullman has been known for being an outspoken writer. His Dark Materials was highly critical of organised religion and overtly atheist. The Amber Spyglass featured the death of God. The target in The Rose Field was capitalism and its corrupting influence on people and society. The Rose Field showed there was a supernatural reason to why human compassionate being destroyed, leading people to be only concerned about money. Again, this idea was introduced at the end of the novel. It felt like Pullman changed direction during the writing process since public opinion against corporations has become even more hostile.
Like The Secret Commonwealth, The Rose Field was a long road trip. Lyra and Malcolm were travelling from Syria to the Red Building, and stopping off at cities like Aleppo and Baku. This made The Rose Field feel episodic as they meet people and went on side quests. The novel couldn’t focus on its main goal, and the book was spread so thin that supposedly big moments were underdeveloped.
Whilst this review has been negative, Pullman was able to write engaging scenes, vivid descriptions, and imaginative creatures. The gryphons were fantastic creatures that had their own kingdom in the mountains. They were proud and obsessed, whilst having a sense of loyalty and honour. The description of their kingdom was fantastic since they lived high up in the mountains, so they didn’t need to make cells for their human prisoners. The oghâb-gorgs were horrific creatures because they were vicious birds that devoured anything, including their own species. When the novel was focused on characters, plot, and action, and less on philosophy, it was engaging to read. Sadly, individual moments and ideas were not enough to save the novel
The Rose Field was a big disappointment. Despite the six-year-long gap between The Secret Commonwealth and The Rose Field, the concluding novel was unrefined and in desperate need of a forceful editor.
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Score
Summary
Lyra’s story should have ended at The Amber Spyglass.
