Chris Soul

How to review the final installment in Lyra's story, spanning thirty years of publication, beginning with His Dark Materials and ending with the Book of Dust? Firstly, The Book of Dust trilogy, like His Dark Materials, is imperfect and will likely be pulled apart by discerning readers who feel that not all plotlines were resolved and that questions, both philosophical and narrative, remain to be answered. But I don't think Philip Pullman ever intended to write perfect books. As he has said himself, he is fundamentally a storyteller and these books, culminating in the Rose Field, are spawling, messy but wonderfully imaginative, uplifting, engaging and mysterious. There is something of the mythic in them and any myth, as we know, can be strange and uneven, but powerful in their dream-state hold. Pullman holds us in his world/s like no-one else of his generation. And the Rose Field, the final book of the Book of Dust, is testament to his storytelling power. 

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I really, really enjoyed reading The Rose Field. I flew through the pages captivated by the adventure, the philosophical enquiry, the feeling of being absorbed in a reality bent by myth it circles back to reality in its pull. What matters is the imagination itself. As Pan goes in search of Lyra's imagination, so must we as the reader. Does imagination matter to us anymore? Do stories matter? If they do to you, then let Pullman take you on an adventure and enjoy his way with words and the sheer force of his magnetic imagination. There aren't many authors like him!