Lyra and Malcom's quests converge as they race toward the mysterious red building in the desert of Karamakan said to hold the secret of Dust where they encounter an unforeseen threat that will change everything, in the conclusion to Philip Pullman’s trilogy, The Book of Dust.
Has a few...minor weak spots. Grown-up Lyra is surlier than she was as a tween, and I’m here for it, but I would have welcomed a little surliness from Malcolm, who is weirdly perfect .. But Pullman’s abilities as a storyteller are stupendous, and on full display. He keeps all his characters in constant motion, nimbly shifting point of view among them in midstream ... Pullman...[wears] his progressive politics on his sleeve, but it works better when he shows us, which he does with lashings of his rich, supersaturated prose.
Jam-packed with chases, daring escapes, splendidly operatic scene setting (including an evil sorcerer’s titanic mountain forge), strange and magnificent creatures, and charismatic supporting characters that readers will clutch to their hearts with undying love. It is tremendously entertaining ... Questions may niggle at some readers, but they don’t interfere much with the pleasures dispensed by The Rose Field, from its thrilling action sequences to the return of such indelible creations as the witches with their harsh, ascetic wisdom and ragged elegance. The novel’s moments of keen emotion resonate especially well because Pullman never stoops to sentimentality or cant.
