Things are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's masterful trilogies set in a universe that seems, now more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along new and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from governments, and accumulating in the halls of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the grasp of crowds. "Something is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says trader a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an city cafe. "Things we thought were secure and solid are weakening and failing."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that animates The Rose Field, which picks up where its predecessor ended. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's final foray into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating universe he first introduced 30 years ago, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose landscape maps on to that of our world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and reason and behave like us, but are paired by animal souls, beings in animal form; where the heavens are filled with witches and gryphons, but beneath those skies, transports are taken and tea is consumed, and mature scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the prickly and persistent main character of the prior volumes, but older, melancholic, more cautious, less certain. This circumscription is amplified by her division from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to go off in quest of that youthful part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an quality which he represents as her "imagination"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with marvel and peril on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the religious ruling body, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister incarnation of austere, bureaucratic wickedness – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's family member, who blames her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the role of leader of the church's governing body, and is determined on using his fresh authority to broaden the church's rule. A key character, who carried infant the heroine to refuge along a swollen river as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in espionage: he is sent to Geneva to find out more about Delamare's plans. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and valuable essential oil which seems in some way to be the cause of a social and economic upheaval rippling out from the region. The extract is regarded by various factions as a tradeable good, by others as a research-based or esoteric miracle, and by yet others – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a source of darkness; an challenge that must be obliterated. The dilemma of where it comes from, what it stands for, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
As in His Dark Materials, the heroine's actions, and her fate, are shown to be deeply entwined with the fate of the realm
In its predecessor, these storylines ran largely in parallel. In this final book, they merge. Like the original series, Lyra's actions and her destiny are shown to be inextricably linked with the fate of the world. Her individual journey to reconnect with her daemon and rediscover her creativity becomes the key conflict in a broader conflict with an controlling regime which, as such regimes often attempt, is seeking to suppress autonomy of thinking, creativity and art: all the inner, resistant ways in which people can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The book opens with the discovery of a collection of unusual cracks in the structure of the planet's atmosphere: portals that appear to give on to alternate realities. One such opening manifests to be the origin of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its leadership, designates these portals as a problem to the religion's orthodoxy and endeavors to destroy them. As the heroine begins to shift from rigid logic and return to instinct, yet, her certainty that these locations must be protected – that their meaning and their value is mysteriously crucial – grows. "The substance, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a poetic struggle between naivety and knowledge is established.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
