Things are collapsing in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a universe that seems, in this volume especially, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is draining from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the control of mobs. "Something is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and strong are weakening and failing."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that propels The Rose Field, which picks up where its predecessor concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's final venture into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting universe he first introduced in the distant past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose landscape aligns with that of the real world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the people appear and reason and behave like us, but are joined by daemons, essences in animal form; where the skies are populated with witches and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, transports are ridden and drinks is sipped, and middle-aged professors carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began this trilogy, is now a adult: still recognisably the prickly and persistent heroine of the prior volumes, but aged, more sorrowful, more careful, more doubtful. This circumscription is amplified by her separation from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to leave in pursuit of that childlike part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an trait which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, meeting with marvel and danger on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister embodiment of strict, bureaucratic wickedness – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the role of president of the Magisterium's governing body, and is determined on using his newfound influence to extend the institution's dominium. A key character, who saved baby Lyra to refuge along a overflowing river as an child in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in spycraft: he is assigned to a key location to discover more about the antagonist's aims. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and valuable rose oil which manifests somehow to be the cause of a social and economic disturbance spreading out from Central Asia. The substance is viewed by various factions as a tradeable product, by different parties as a scientific or esoteric phenomenon, and by others still – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a origin of evil; an challenge that must be obliterated. The question of its origins, what it stands for, and whether it should be removed or protected is becoming urgent.
As in the first series, the heroine's deeds, and her fate, are demonstrated to be deeply linked with the future of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran broadly in side by side. In the conclusion, they merge. As in the first trilogy, Lyra's movements and her fate are shown to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the universe. Her personal quest to rejoin with her daemon and regain her creativity becomes the primary struggle in a larger battle with an authoritarian system which, as such authorities often attempt, is seeking to stifle independence of thought, creativity and expression: all the inner, defiant ways in which humans can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The novel begins with the discovery of a series of strange openings in the fabric of the planet's air: windows that seem to open into alternate realities. One such portal manifests to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The church, with the antagonist at its leadership, designates these openings as a challenge to the religion's beliefs and endeavors to destroy them. As the heroine begins to move from rigid rationalism and revert to intuition, yet, her belief that these places must be preserved – that their meaning and what they offer is in some way essential – increases. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a philosophical tussle between naivety and knowledge is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
