Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that appears, now more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reassembling themselves along novel and troubling lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from states, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the vaults of corporations, the control of rioters. "An element is at work, stealthily, gradually", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and strong are faltering and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that drives this final volume, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's final foray into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating realm he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose terrain maps on to that of the real world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals look and think and act like us, but are paired by daemons, beings in creature form; where the heavens are teeming with enchantresses and gryphons, but beneath those skies, transports are ridden and drinks is sipped, and older professors carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still distinctly the spiky and determined protagonist of the prior volumes, but aged, more sorrowful, warier, less certain. This circumscription is amplified by her division from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to depart in quest of that youthful part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he represents as her "imagination"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with wonder and danger on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in play, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the religious governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister embodiment of strict, procedural malice – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – the heroine's uncle, who faults her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the role of leader of the authority's High Council, and is determined on using his fresh authority to broaden the institution's control. A key character, who carried baby the heroine to safety along a swollen Thames as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in intelligence work: he is dispatched to Geneva to discover more about his intentions. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which appears somehow to be the cause of a societal and economic disturbance rippling out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by certain groups as a commercial product, by different parties as a scientific or mystical miracle, and by others still – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an challenge that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its source, its significance, and whether it should be eliminated or protected is becoming urgent.
Like the original trilogy, Lyra's actions, and her future, are demonstrated to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the realm
In its predecessor, these narratives ran largely in side by side. In The Rose Field, they merge. As in the original series, the protagonist's movements and her path are shown to be deeply entwined with the future of the world. Her individual mission to rejoin with her companion and rediscover her imagination becomes the primary battleground in a wider war with an oppressive government which, as such regimes often attempt, is seeking to quell autonomy of reason, originality and art: all the inner, rebellious ways in which people can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The novel starts with the unveiling of a collection of curious fissures in the fabric of the Earth's atmosphere: portals that look to give on to other worlds. One such window seems to be the point of the highly contested mystical extract. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its helm, designates these portals as a problem to the church's doctrine and endeavors to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from inflexible rationalism and return to instinct, however, her belief that these locations must be defended – that what they stand for and what they provide is in some way crucial – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a poetic conflict between purity and maturity is established.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
