Tings are collapsing in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that appears, here more than ever, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from governments, and accumulating in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of business empires, the control of mobs. "Something is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and durable are faltering and failing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Precisely what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that drives the concluding book, which resumes where its predecessor ended. This is, according to many, the author's last excursion into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating realm he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose geography maps on to 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 animal souls, beings in beast form; where the skies are populated with enchantresses and gryphons, but beneath those skies, vehicles are caught and beverages is consumed, and middle-aged academics carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the sharp and tenacious heroine of the previous installments, but more mature, more sorrowful, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is intensified by her split from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to depart in quest of that youthful part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an quality which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which chronicled Lyra undertake a wandering journey across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with wonder and peril on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the church's governing authority, and the author's brilliantly sinister embodiment of rigid, procedural wickedness – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the position of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is set on using his fresh power to expand the church's dominium. A key character, who saved young Lyra to safety along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in spycraft: he is assigned to Geneva to learn more about Delamare's aims. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and valuable essential oil which seems in some way to be the origin of a social and financial crisis spreading out from the region. The oil is viewed by certain groups as a tradeable commodity, by others as a scientific or esoteric miracle, and by yet others – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a source of darkness; an insult that must be eradicated. The issue of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be eliminated or protected is escalating in importance.
Like the original trilogy, our protagonist's deeds, and her fate, are shown to be deeply linked with the fate of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran broadly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they come together. Like the original series, her movements and her path are shown to be deeply entwined with the future of the realm. Her individual mission to reunite with her companion and rediscover her vision becomes the central battleground in a wider battle with an oppressive government which, as these systems always have, is striving to stifle freedom of reason, creativity and culture: all the inner, rebellious ways in which humans can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The story begins with the finding of a set of curious fissures in the structure of the Earth's sky: windows that appear to give on to alternate realities. A particular opening appears to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its helm, labels these windows as a threat to the church's doctrine and aims to destroy them. As Lyra begins to turn away from strict reason and revert to instinct, however, her belief that these locations must be defended – that their significance and what they offer is in some way essential – strengthens. "Dust, or the extract, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a poetic struggle between purity and knowledge is established.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
