Tings are falling apart in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that seems, here more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along new and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from states, and gathering in the offices of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the grasp of mobs. "Something is at work, silently, very subtly", says merchant a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his post in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and solid are faltering and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that animates the concluding book, which continues where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding excursion into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting realm he first introduced three decades past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose landscape aligns with that of our world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the people look and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by daemons, beings in creature form; where the skies are teeming with enchantresses and gryphons, but below, transports are caught and drinks is sipped, and middle-aged scholars carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the prequel, the origin story with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a adult: still distinctly the spiky and persistent heroine of the prior volumes, but more mature, more sorrowful, more careful, less certain. This circumscription is intensified by her division from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to depart in quest of that youthful part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an trait which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a wandering voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with amazement and danger on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the church's controlling power, and Pullman's masterfully eerie representation of strict, administrative evil – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the position of president of the church's High Council, and is set on using his recently acquired power to broaden the church's control. A key character, who saved infant Lyra to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a secondary role in spycraft: he is sent to a key location to learn more about his intentions. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and costly rose oil which seems somehow to be the origin of a societal and economic crisis rippling out from that area. The extract is regarded by certain groups as a commercial product, by alternate groups as a scientific or esoteric miracle, and by yet others – the zealous "highland figures" – as a source of malevolence; an insult that must be obliterated. The question of its origins, what it stands for, and whether it should be eliminated or protected is escalating in importance.
As in the first series, our protagonist's deeds, and her destiny, are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the future of the realm
In its predecessor, these plots ran largely in side by side. In the conclusion, they come together. Similar to the original series, Lyra's choices and her destiny are unveiled to be deeply entwined with the future of the realm. Her private mission to reconnect with her companion and rediscover her imagination becomes the key struggle in a larger conflict with an authoritarian regime which, as these systems typically do, is seeking to quell autonomy of thought, originality and art: all the personal, rebellious ways in which people can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The book starts with the unveiling of a set of unusual openings in the makeup of the world's sky: portals that appear to give on to different dimensions. An example of a portal manifests to be the source of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its leadership, classifies these openings as a problem to the church's doctrine and sets out to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to move from strict rationalism and revert to instinct, yet, her conviction that these locations must be preserved – that their significance and what they provide is mysteriously essential – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a philosophical tussle between purity and knowledge is prepared.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
