I was eagerly waiting to read “The Rose Field” by Philip Pullman after having read “The Secret Commonwealth”, which had ended on a cliff-hanger. This is the third book in the “The Book Of Dust” trilogy of books, which followed the “His Dark Materials” trilogy of books. I have been a fan of this series of fantasy fiction books, so I was a little disappointed in how this book ended this trilogy.
The book follows the heroine Lyra Belacqua (now known as Lyra Silvertongue) on her quest to reunite with her daemon Pantalaimon, who in turn is on a quest to recover Lyra’s “imagination” from a mysterious red building in a far off desert. Their world is in turmoil as the head of the religious body Magisterium seeks to tighten its control over the world while unknown forces are “destroying the air and the seasons” and money is losing its value. Several openings have been discovered across the world by the Magisterium that are gateways into other worlds and the Magisterium is intent on blasting these openings into oblivion to stop them from corrupting their world (as they claim it).
Lyra and Pantalaimon (separately) go through several adventures in their respective quests, aided by several characters and creatures while being pursued by several others determined to thwart them. They have overcome the disappointment and the distrust that caused them to go their separate ways. The book is the saga of these adventures and the eventual reunion in the climax.
The book is paced well and explores the complex personalities of several of the characters. Since it has been two and a half years after I read the last book, I initially found it a bit hard to recall names and events. However, this confusion lasted only a short while as the book does well to fill you in on the details that you might have forgotten. At 500+ pages, the book still keeps you engaged and keeps advancing the narrative.
The book ties together several narrative arcs from the previous books. Some of these get closures, while some are left open. In particular, the ending of the book seemed a little abrupt and somewhat incomplete to me. I still have so many questions that remain unanswered after I finished the book. It is almost as if the author got tired of writing this book and decided to just wrap it up. This is why the book was a little disappointing to me as the final book in this trilogy.
If you are a fan of this series of books and the fantasy world it builds out, you owe it to yourself to read this book. If you are not such a fan, I would recommend to stick to the “His Dark Materials” trilogy of books. That trilogy still remains fantastic.