Tings are collapsing in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that seems, in this volume especially, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or restructuring themselves along new and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is draining from governments, and accumulating in the halls of religious leaders, the coffers of conglomerates, the grasp of mobs. "Some force is at work, very quietly, gradually", says merchant a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and durable are deteriorating and failing."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that drives The Rose Field, which continues where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's last foray into the elaborately built, deeply captivating realm he first revealed in the distant past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose terrain corresponds to that of our world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, beings in animal form; where the air are filled with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, transports are caught and drinks is drunk, and mature professors carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, 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 prequel with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still distinctly the spiky and determined heroine of the previous installments, but older, sadder, more careful, less sure. This limitation is amplified by her split from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to depart in pursuit of that innocent part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he represents as her "creativity"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which followed Lyra undertake a picaresque journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with wonder and risk on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of strict, bureaucratic evil – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's uncle, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the office of leader of the Magisterium's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound influence to broaden the church's dominium. A key character, who saved baby the heroine to security along a swollen river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in espionage: he is dispatched to the city to learn more about the antagonist's aims. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and costly essential oil which manifests mysteriously to be the origin of a social and financial disturbance emanating out from the region. The substance is regarded by some as a commercial product, by alternate groups as a research-based or spiritual wonder, and by yet others – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of evil; an challenge that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its origins, its significance, and if it should be removed or protected is escalating in importance.
Like the original trilogy, Lyra's decisions, and her fate, are revealed to be inextricably connected with the future of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran largely in parallel. In The Rose Field, they merge. As in His Dark Materials, the protagonist's movements and her path are revealed to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the world. Her individual mission to reunite with her companion and regain her creativity becomes the primary struggle in a wider war with an oppressive government which, as such authorities typically do, is striving to quell independence of thinking, creativity and culture: all the inner, resistant ways in which people can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The story starts with the discovery of a collection of unusual fissures in the makeup of the world's atmosphere: portals that appear to open into other worlds. An example of a opening appears to be the source of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its leadership, designates these portals as a problem to the institution's doctrine and sets out to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from inflexible rationalism and revert to feeling, however, her belief that these sites must be defended – that what they stand for and what they provide is in some way essential – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a philosophical tussle between naivety and maturity is set.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
