Things are unraveling in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a world that appears, now more than ever, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Establishments are failing, or restructuring themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is draining from governments, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the control of mobs. "An element is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were secure and solid are weakening and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that propels this final volume, which picks up where its predecessor left off. This is, reportedly, the author's final venture into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting universe he first revealed 30 years ago, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the humans look and think and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, beings in creature form; where the air are filled with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, vehicles are caught and beverages is consumed, and older scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a child in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the prickly and tenacious main character of the earlier books, but aged, more sorrowful, more cautious, less certain. This restraint is intensified by her split from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to go off in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an quality which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and peril on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in play, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the faith's ruling body, and Pullman's masterfully eerie embodiment of austere, administrative malice – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's family member, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the position of leader of the Magisterium's High Council, and is set on using his recently acquired influence to expand the institution's control. A key character, who saved baby the heroine to refuge along a swollen Thames as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in spycraft: he is sent to a key location to find out more about Delamare's plans. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and precious rose oil which appears in some way to be the origin of a societal and economic disturbance rippling out from the region. The substance is viewed by certain groups as a marketable good, by alternate groups as a empirical or esoteric miracle, and by others still – the zealous "highland figures" – as a origin of evil; an challenge that must be destroyed. The issue of its source, its meaning, and if it should be eliminated or protected is escalating in importance.
Similar to the first series, Lyra's decisions, and her future, are demonstrated to be deeply connected with the future of the universe
In the previous volume, these storylines ran largely in side by side. In the conclusion, they merge. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's choices and her fate are unveiled to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the universe. Her personal journey to reunite with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the key conflict in a larger battle with an oppressive government which, as such regimes always have, is attempting to suppress autonomy of thinking, innovation and expression: all the inner, resistant ways in which people can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The novel starts with the discovery of a series of curious fissures in the fabric of the Earth's sky: portals that appear to give on to different dimensions. A particular portal appears to be the source of the much debated mystical extract. The authority, with the antagonist at its head, labels these openings as a problem to the church's orthodoxy and aims to destroy them. As the heroine begins to turn away from inflexible logic and return to intuition, however, her certainty that these sites must be defended – that their significance and what they offer is mysteriously vital – grows. "The substance, or the extract, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a philosophical tussle between naivety and maturity is established.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
