What was Pullman trying to achieve with the Rose Field?
I just finished the Rose Field and like most of you I was equally confused and disappointed. I read many of the threads complaining about what went wrong from months ago when it was first published and I don't want to just repeat those critical takes but I do want to vent my spleen!
I should say I really enjoyed La Belle Sauvage and most of the Secret Commonwealth, so this isn't even a criticism of the Book of Dust Trilogy as a whole. It just felt that he lost courage in what he was building during the first two books at some point during the writing of the Rose Field (and the long gap between TSC and TRF would seem to buttress this take) and afterwards kind of muddled his way to a quick and jumbled ending to just have the whole thing off his plate.
The former is my opinion as the sudden deaths of Delamere, the lack of confrontation with Thuringia Potash and the disappearance of the Gryphon and Witch armies seem to show he got cold feet at the last moment. If he did perhaps he felt he didn't want to write another dramatic battle with existential stakes like in the Amber Spyglass? Or perhaps he couldn't get his head around his own concept of the Secret Commonwealth and how it related to the Dust?...why else reintroduce openings to parallel universes which you already established endangered the entire multiverse and could only be opened with the Subtle Knife!!!
But what do you guys think he wanted to achieve with the Rose Field?