Things are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a world that seems, in this volume especially, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reassembling themselves along new and troubling lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is draining from governments, and pooling in the chambers of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the hands of rioters. "An element is at work, stealthily, gradually", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and durable are faltering and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Precisely what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that propels The Rose Field, which continues where the previous book concluded. This is, according to many, the author's last venture into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling world he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose geography aligns with that of the real world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and reason and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, souls in animal form; where the air are filled with witches and mythical beasts, but below, transports are ridden and beverages is sipped, and middle-aged academics carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the prequel, the origin story with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still distinctly the sharp and persistent protagonist of the prior volumes, but aged, sadder, more cautious, less sure. This circumscription is intensified by her division from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to go off in search of that childlike part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a adventurous journey across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with amazement and peril on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the faith's controlling power, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister embodiment of strict, procedural malice – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the position of leader of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his recently acquired power to extend the religion's control. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued baby the heroine to security along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an academic with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is dispatched to Geneva to find out more about the antagonist's aims. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and valuable rose oil which manifests in some way to be the source of a societal and financial upheaval spreading out from Central Asia. The oil is seen by some as a commercial product, by alternate groups as a research-based or esoteric phenomenon, and by yet others – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of evil; an challenge that must be destroyed. The dilemma of where it comes from, what it stands for, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
As in the original trilogy, our protagonist's actions, and her destiny, are revealed to be inseparably linked with the future of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they merge. Like the original series, her actions and her destiny are unveiled to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the universe. Her personal mission to reunite with her soul and rediscover her creativity becomes the primary conflict in a broader conflict with an authoritarian system which, as these systems typically do, is striving to stifle autonomy of reason, originality and culture: all the inner, rebellious ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The story opens with the discovery of a set of unusual openings in the makeup of the world's air: portals that appear to open into alternate realities. A particular window manifests to be the origin of the much debated botanical substance. The church, with its leader at its head, classifies these windows as a threat to the religion's doctrine and endeavors to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to move from inflexible rationalism and back to feeling, however, her certainty that these locations must be protected – that what they stand for and what they provide is in some way crucial – strengthens. "The substance, or the substance, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or whatever we name it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a philosophical struggle between purity and experience is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
