Things are collapsing in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a world that appears, in this volume especially, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reassembling themselves along new and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from authorities, and pooling in the halls of religious leaders, the vaults of conglomerates, the grasp of mobs. "Something is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, 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 Her Quest
Exactly what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which resumes where the previous book left off. This is, according to many, the author's last excursion into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating realm he first revealed three decades past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography corresponds to that of the real world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, souls in creature form; where the heavens are filled with witches and mythical beasts, but below, buses are caught and tea is consumed, and older academics carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the sharp and tenacious heroine of the earlier books, but older, melancholic, more careful, more doubtful. This circumscription is heightened by her separation from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
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 represents as her "vision"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with wonder and peril on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in play, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the religious ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister representation of strict, administrative malice – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's family member, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the position of head of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his recently acquired influence to extend the church's rule. A key character, who rescued baby Lyra to security along a flooded Thames as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an academic with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is dispatched to a key location to find out more about the antagonist's plans. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and precious essential oil which manifests somehow to be the cause of a social and financial crisis rippling out from that area. The extract is viewed by certain groups as a marketable product, by different parties as a empirical or mystical wonder, and by yet others – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a source of malevolence; an challenge that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its source, what it stands for, and whether it should be eliminated or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Similar to the first series, the heroine's decisions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inseparably entwined with the future of the universe
In the previous volume, these plots ran broadly in parallel. In this final book, they merge. Like the first trilogy, her choices and her path are revealed to be inseparably woven with the fate of the world. Her individual mission to reconnect with her companion and recover her creativity becomes the key conflict in a broader conflict with an authoritarian regime which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to stifle independence of thought, innovation and culture: all the personal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The book starts with the discovery of a set of curious cracks in the fabric of the world's atmosphere: portals that look to open into different dimensions. A particular portal appears to be the source of the much debated rose oil. The authority, with Delamare at its leadership, classifies these portals as a problem to the religion's beliefs and sets out to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from rigid rationalism and back to feeling, however, her certainty that these locations must be protected – that their meaning and what they provide is mysteriously essential – grows. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a Blakean conflict between purity and knowledge is set.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
