The Rose Field - bookrastinating.com

Hardcover, 672 pages

English language

Published 2025 by David Fickling Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-241-79757-0

View on OpenLibrary

(1 review)

Exclusive Edition featuring original foiled endpapers, foiled case design and a ribbon bookmark.

The long-awaited and highly anticipated conclusion to Philip Pullman’s bestselling The Book of Dust sequence . . .

‘Lyra: what will you do when you find this place in the desert, the opening to the world of the roses?’

‘Defend it,’ Lyra said. ‘Die defending it.’

When readers left Lyra in The Secret Commonwealth she was alone, in the ruins of a deserted city. Pantalaimon had run from her – part of himself – in search of her imagination, which he believed she had lost. Lyra travelled across the world from her Oxford home in search of her dæmon. And Malcolm, loyal Malcolm, too journeyed far from home, towards the Silk Roads in search of Lyra . . .

In The Rose Field, their quests converge in the most dangerous, breathtaking and …

Exclusive Edition featuring original foiled endpapers, foiled case design and a ribbon bookmark.

The long-awaited and highly anticipated conclusion to Philip Pullman’s bestselling The Book of Dust sequence . . .

‘Lyra: what will you do when you find this place in the desert, the opening to the world of the roses?’

‘Defend it,’ Lyra said. ‘Die defending it.’

When readers left Lyra in The Secret Commonwealth she was alone, in the ruins of a deserted city. Pantalaimon had run from her – part of himself – in search of her imagination, which he believed she had lost. Lyra travelled across the world from her Oxford home in search of her dæmon. And Malcolm, loyal Malcolm, too journeyed far from home, towards the Silk Roads in search of Lyra . . .

In The Rose Field, their quests converge in the most dangerous, breathtaking and world-changing ways. They must take help from spies and thieves, gryphons and witches, old friends and new, learning all the while the depth and surprising truths of the alethiometer. All around them, the world is aflame – made terrifying by fear, power and greed.

As they move East, towards the red building that will reunite them and give them answers – on Dust, on the special roses, on imagination – so too does the Magisterium, at war against all that Lyra holds dear.

Marking thirty years since the world was first introduced to Pullman’s remarkable heroine Lyra Belacqua in Northern Lights, The Rose Field is the culmination of the cultural phenomenon of The Book of Dust and His Dark Materials.

'Ablaze with light and life . . . To read Pullman is to experience the world refreshed, aglow, in technicolour' - Independent

2 editions

AvonVilla@ramblingreaders.org reviewed The Rose Field by Philip Pullman (The Book of Dust)

A lot to take in

5 stars

It's my habit to record my reactions to books I read. I do it here under the heading "review", which implies I will describe whether the book is any good or not.

Mainly I have to say, yes, the book is very good indeed. It is long and gripping and full of all the wonders and unique inventiveness that Philip Pullman has dished up in the five preceding novels in this series. This final book does indeed have the feeling of a major literary event, or a literary big bang as I saw it described in a newspaper article last week. "The Book of Dust" is on track to be as important and well-loved as "His Dark Materials".

In the battle between good and evil that Pullman outlines, there are various forces which represent the two sides. The bonds between humans and the power of the imagination are …

It's my habit to record my reactions to books I read. I do it here under the heading "review", which implies I will describe whether the book is any good or not.

Mainly I have to say, yes, the book is very good indeed. It is long and gripping and full of all the wonders and unique inventiveness that Philip Pullman has dished up in the five preceding novels in this series. This final book does indeed have the feeling of a major literary event, or a literary big bang as I saw it described in a newspaper article last week. "The Book of Dust" is on track to be as important and well-loved as "His Dark Materials".

In the battle between good and evil that Pullman outlines, there are various forces which represent the two sides. The bonds between humans and the power of the imagination are on the good side. A malign force which dissolves those bonds is on the evil side. It incorporates the mindless pursuit of money and the destructive development which is carried out as a result. Initially I found this element of the book to be somewhat mundane, even obvious and simplistic compared to the complexities and mysteries which preceded it. But I agree so strongly with the conclusion that I am prepared to suspend any criticism of Pullman's execution until I've had a chance to contemplate it and re-read it. His great heroine Lyra says it herself, it's complicated and contradictory.

Another misgiving I had was the musing about the nature of consciousness, and the suggestion that it might be a universal field which permeates the universe. I am delighted to see this sort of thing used as a metaphor, less happy at the suggestion that it is to be taken literally. That sounds like religious mumbo jumbo to me. But again, I'll leave my 5 star rating in place until I've had a chance to ponder this more thoroughly. Maybe in future I will edit or rewrite this review. In the meantime, I am happy to say it's a great read, and if you'll forgive the cliche, destined to become a classic.