Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that manifests, in this volume especially, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reassembling themselves along new and troubling lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from governments, and pooling in the halls of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the grasp of crowds. "Some force is at work, very quietly, gradually", says merchant a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and durable are weakening and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Exactly what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the inquiry that drives the concluding book, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, by all accounts, the author's concluding venture into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting universe he first introduced in the distant past, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose terrain corresponds to that of our world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the individuals look and think and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, beings in creature form; where the heavens are populated with enchantresses and gryphons, but below, transports are taken and drinks is sipped, and mature scholars carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still clearly the sharp and persistent main character of the prior volumes, but aged, sadder, more cautious, less certain. This restraint is intensified by her split from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to go off in search of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an trait which he represents as her "imagination"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a adventurous voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with amazement and risk on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the church's governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling embodiment of strict, procedural evil – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the office of president of the church's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his fresh authority to broaden the religion's dominium. A key character, who carried young Lyra to safety along a overflowing Thames as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in espionage: he is dispatched to the city to discover more about his intentions. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and costly botanical extract which seems in some way to be the source of a social and financial upheaval emanating out from the region. The oil is viewed by various factions as a tradeable commodity, by alternate groups as a empirical or esoteric phenomenon, and by others still – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of darkness; an insult that must be obliterated. The question of its origins, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Like the original trilogy, Lyra's decisions, and her future, are demonstrated to be inseparably entwined with the fate of the universe
In its predecessor, these narratives ran mostly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they merge. Similar to the original series, her choices and her destiny are revealed to be inextricably linked with the fate of the universe. Her individual quest to reconnect with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the central battleground in a broader conflict with an controlling government which, as such authorities always have, is striving to stifle independence of thinking, originality and art: all the internal, rebellious ways in which people can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The novel starts with the discovery of a series of strange cracks in the structure of the world's sky: windows that appear to open into different dimensions. One such opening manifests to be the source of the much debated rose oil. The church, with Delamare at its leadership, designates these portals as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and endeavors to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to shift from rigid logic and return to feeling, nevertheless, her certainty that these locations must be protected – that their meaning and what they offer is mysteriously vital – grows. "The substance, or rose oil, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a poetic tussle between purity and experience is established.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
