Things are unraveling in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that appears, in this volume especially, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along new and troubling lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from governments, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the grasp of crowds. "Some force is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and solid are faltering and failing."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Just what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that drives this final volume, which picks up where the previous book ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding excursion into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting universe he first introduced three decades past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose terrain aligns with that of the real world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and behave like us, but are joined by daemons, essences in creature form; where the heavens are populated with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, transports are caught and beverages is consumed, and mature scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still clearly the spiky and persistent heroine of the earlier books, but aged, melancholic, warier, less sure. This limitation is amplified by her split from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to depart in pursuit of that innocent part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an trait which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, meeting with wonder and peril on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in action, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the religious ruling body, and the author's masterfully eerie incarnation of rigid, bureaucratic malice – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. The antagonist – Lyra's family member, who faults her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the role of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his fresh influence to broaden the church's rule. Another protagonist, who carried infant Lyra to security along a overflowing river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is assigned to a key location to learn more about his intentions. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and costly essential oil which appears somehow to be the source of a societal and economic disturbance emanating out from that area. The substance is seen by some as a tradeable product, by alternate groups as a scientific or esoteric phenomenon, and by yet others – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a source of darkness; an challenge that must be eradicated. The issue of its origins, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or preserved is coming rapidly to the fore.
As in His Dark Materials, our protagonist's actions, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inseparably linked with the future of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran mostly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they come together. As in His Dark Materials, the protagonist's choices and her destiny are unveiled to be inextricably woven with the fate of the universe. Her private journey to reconnect with her daemon and regain her creativity becomes the key battleground in a wider battle with an oppressive regime which, as such authorities typically do, is attempting to stifle independence of thinking, originality and expression: all the internal, defiant ways in which individuals can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The story starts with the discovery of a series of unusual cracks in the fabric of the planet's air: portals that look to give on to alternate realities. A particular opening manifests to be the source of the highly contested mystical extract. The authority, with the antagonist at its leadership, designates these windows as a challenge to the institution's beliefs and aims to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from inflexible reason and revert to instinct, nevertheless, her belief that these locations must be protected – that their significance and what they offer is in some way vital – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or whatever we label it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical tussle between purity and maturity is established.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
