Things are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a universe that appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from authorities, and accumulating in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the grasp of mobs. "Some force is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says trader a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were secure and durable are weakening and giving way."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that propels the concluding book, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, according to many, Pullman's last excursion into the elaborately built, deeply captivating world he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose terrain aligns with that of this world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the people appear and think and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, essences in beast form; where the heavens are teeming with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, transports are taken and beverages is consumed, and older academics carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a child in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which Pullman began the series, is now a adult: still clearly the sharp and tenacious heroine of the prior volumes, but aged, more sorrowful, warier, less sure. This restraint is amplified by her separation from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to depart in pursuit of that childlike part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an quality which he represents as her "vision"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with amazement and risk on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the religious ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister embodiment of rigid, bureaucratic malice – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's uncle, who faults her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the position of president of the church's governing body, and is set on using his fresh influence to expand the religion's control. A key character, who saved infant the heroine to safety along a flooded Thames as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in spycraft: he is sent to a key location to find out more about the antagonist's aims. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and valuable botanical extract which manifests mysteriously to be the source of a social and financial upheaval emanating out from that area. The oil is viewed by some as a marketable commodity, by alternate groups as a research-based or esoteric wonder, and by further factions – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a source of evil; an challenge that must be destroyed. The issue of its source, what it stands for, and whether it should be destroyed or preserved is coming rapidly to the fore.
As in His Dark Materials, the heroine's actions, and her future, are demonstrated to be deeply connected with the fate of the realm
In its predecessor, these storylines ran mostly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they come together. Like the first trilogy, Lyra's actions and her fate are unveiled to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the world. Her private mission to reconnect with her daemon and recover her creativity becomes the key battleground in a broader conflict with an authoritarian regime which, as such regimes typically do, is striving to suppress freedom of reason, originality and culture: all the internal, defiant ways in which individuals can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The book opens with the finding of a series of curious openings in the structure of the world's atmosphere: portals that seem to open into other worlds. A particular portal manifests to be the origin of the highly contested rose oil. The authority, with Delamare at its leadership, designates these windows as a threat to the church's orthodoxy and aims to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to move from strict logic and return to instinct, yet, her conviction that these locations must be preserved – that what they stand for and their value is mysteriously essential – increases. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical tussle between innocence and experience is set.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
