This was a painful read. I don’t even think I can articulate how bad this was. There was too much going on and just outright stupidity in a few places. I really wish we had the Lyra we came to know in His Dark Materials. Heck, even the first book in the Book of Dust trilogy was good, but then it went off the rails with book #2 and now this. Also the ending was a let-down. Don’t get me started on someone being straight up murderous through three books and going, eh bygones. I don’t know what the point of this book even was in the end.
The Rose Field is the final book (thank you book gods) in the Book of Dust trilogy. We follow Lyra as she tries to find Pan and Malcolm being an utter waste of space some more as they try to figure out how a trail of roses will explain the dust.
I do think that probably the only thing I can give credit to this series for is how much we lose ourselves as we get older. And I think that’s what Pullman was going for in the end. We lose what made us brave, fall in love, and just believe in things that we can’t even see. That said, this book following a bunch of adults depressed the life out of me.
If you thought there be some resolution about Will and Lyra please skip this book. If you thought the whole Malcolm thing would be adequately addressed, skip this book. Honestly, I could not stand that character and resented everytime he popped up defending Lyra or trying to take charge. He’s no Will. And by the way Pullman even undoes one of the major plot points in the original His Dark Materials and I just don’t even get what is happening. Heck, I don’t even know if this is fully wrapped up as a trilogy, I imagine Pullman flings a short story at us one of these days in the future because the loose ends were a mess.
Also, I won’t lie, I started to skim this book in self defense. Between this and King Sorrow this year, I have had it up to here with 500 plus page books that are giving us nothing. I just wanted to get to the end.