Things are falling apart in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a universe that appears, now more than ever, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Institutions are failing, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from states, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of business empires, the control of crowds. "Something is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and strong are deteriorating and giving way."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that animates this final volume, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, reportedly, the author's last foray into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling world he first introduced 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose terrain corresponds to that of our world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are joined by animal souls, beings in animal form; where the skies are populated with witches and legendary creatures, but below, transports are ridden and beverages is sipped, and middle-aged scholars carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still clearly the sharp and persistent protagonist of the earlier books, but aged, sadder, warier, less certain. This limitation is amplified by her separation from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that childlike part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which followed Lyra undertake a adventurous trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with marvel and peril on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the church's governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling embodiment of austere, procedural evil – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – Lyra's uncle, who faults her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the office of head of the Magisterium's High Council, and is set on using his newfound power to broaden the religion's dominium. A key character, who carried baby Lyra to security along a flooded Thames as an child in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in spycraft: he is assigned to a key location to find out more about the antagonist's aims. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and costly rose oil which appears in some way to be the source of a social and economic disturbance rippling out from Central Asia. The substance is regarded by certain groups as a commercial commodity, by different parties as a scientific or mystical miracle, and by further factions – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a source of darkness; an affront that must be eradicated. The issue of its source, its meaning, and if it should be removed or preserved is becoming urgent.
Similar to the original trilogy, our protagonist's actions, and her destiny, are shown to be deeply connected with the future of the world
In its predecessor, these plots ran largely in tandem. In this final book, they converge. Similar to His Dark Materials, her choices and her path are shown to be deeply linked with the fate of the realm. Her individual mission to reunite with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the central battleground in a wider war with an oppressive government which, as such authorities always have, is attempting to stifle freedom of thought, innovation and expression: all the personal, defiant ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The novel begins with the discovery of a collection of strange openings in the structure of the world's atmosphere: gateways that appear to open into alternate realities. A particular opening manifests to be the origin of the much debated botanical substance. The authority, with its leader at its helm, classifies these portals as a challenge to the religion's beliefs and sets out to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from rigid reason and revert to feeling, however, her certainty that these sites must be preserved – that their meaning and what they provide is in some way essential – grows. "Dust, or the extract, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a Blakean tussle between naivety and knowledge is set.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
