Things are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that seems, now more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along new and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is draining from states, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the coffers of conglomerates, the control of crowds. "An element is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and solid are weakening and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Exactly what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that drives the concluding book, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's last foray into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating universe he first introduced 30 years ago, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose landscape aligns with that of the real world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the people appear and think and behave like us, but are joined by external spirits, souls in beast form; where the heavens are teeming with witches and gryphons, but underneath, vehicles are taken and beverages is sipped, and mature scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the prequel, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the prickly and determined protagonist of the prior volumes, but older, more sorrowful, more cautious, less sure. This circumscription 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
His choice to go off in quest of that youthful part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which saw Lyra undertake a adventurous journey across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with wonder and peril on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in play, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the faith's governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling embodiment of rigid, procedural malice – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's uncle, who faults her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of head of the authority's governing body, and is determined on using his newfound power to broaden the religion's control. Another protagonist, who rescued baby the heroine to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an young boy in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in espionage: he is assigned to a key location to learn more about his intentions. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and valuable essential oil which manifests mysteriously to be the source of a social and financial crisis rippling out from the region. The oil is regarded by some as a marketable good, by alternate groups as a research-based or spiritual phenomenon, and by further factions – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a source of malevolence; an challenge that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be removed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to the first series, our protagonist's decisions, and her fate, are shown to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the world
In its predecessor, these storylines ran largely in parallel. In The Rose Field, they merge. Similar to the first trilogy, the protagonist's actions and her destiny are revealed to be deeply linked with the future of the realm. Her personal journey to reunite with her companion and regain her creativity becomes the central conflict in a larger war with an controlling regime which, as such regimes often attempt, is attempting to stifle autonomy of thinking, innovation and culture: all the internal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The story opens with the finding of a collection of unusual openings in the makeup of the Earth's atmosphere: windows that seem to open into different dimensions. An example of a window appears to be the source of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its leadership, classifies these portals as a problem to the religion's orthodoxy and sets out to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from strict reason and revert to feeling, yet, her conviction that these locations must be protected – that their significance and what they provide is somehow vital – increases. "Dust, or the substance, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a philosophical conflict between naivety and maturity is established.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
