Tings are collapsing in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that seems, in this volume especially, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or restructuring themselves along new and troubling lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is draining from states, and accumulating in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of business empires, the grasp of rioters. "Something is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says trader a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were stable and strong are deteriorating and failing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Precisely what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that propels The Rose Field, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's final venture into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting universe he first introduced 30 years ago, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose geography aligns with that of the real world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and behave like us, but are paired by external spirits, beings in creature form; where the heavens are teeming with witches and gryphons, but beneath those skies, transports are ridden and tea is sipped, and middle-aged academics carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a child in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still clearly the spiky and determined heroine of the previous installments, but more mature, more sorrowful, warier, more doubtful. This circumscription is amplified by her split from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to leave in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an trait which he represents as her "creativity"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and danger on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in motion, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister representation of rigid, bureaucratic malice – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's uncle, who faults her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the role of president of the Magisterium's High Council, and is set on using his fresh power to expand the religion's dominium. Another protagonist, who saved young the heroine to refuge along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in spycraft: he is sent to Geneva to discover more about Delamare's aims. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and costly essential oil which manifests mysteriously to be the source of a societal and financial upheaval emanating out from that area. The oil is viewed by various factions as a commercial product, by alternate groups as a scientific or esoteric miracle, and by yet others – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of malevolence; an challenge that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its source, its meaning, and if it should be eliminated or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Similar to the first series, Lyra's decisions, and her fate, are shown to be inextricably connected with the destiny of the universe
In its predecessor, these plots ran mostly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they converge. As in the first trilogy, the protagonist's actions and her path are unveiled to be inseparably entwined with the future of the universe. Her private mission to reunite with her daemon and regain her vision becomes the primary battleground in a broader conflict with an controlling system which, as these systems always have, is seeking to quell freedom of thought, creativity and culture: all the internal, defiant ways in which humans can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The story begins with the finding of a collection of unusual openings in the structure of the planet's air: gateways that seem to open into other worlds. A particular opening seems to be the point of the much debated botanical substance. The authority, with the antagonist at its leadership, designates these openings as a threat to the institution's beliefs and sets out to destroy them. As Lyra begins to turn away from inflexible logic and back to intuition, yet, her belief that these sites must be defended – that what they stand for and their value is somehow crucial – strengthens. "Dust, or rose oil, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a philosophical struggle between naivety and experience is set.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
