Tings are falling apart in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that appears, in this volume especially, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from states, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the hands of mobs. "Some force is at work, stealthily, gradually", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his place in an Aleppo 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 methods to fight it, is the inquiry that drives the concluding book, which continues where the previous book left off. This is, according to many, the author's concluding foray into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting universe he first introduced three decades past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose geography maps on to that of the real world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, souls in beast form; where the skies are populated with witches and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, transports are caught and tea is sipped, and older academics carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a child in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the first volume, the origin story with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the prickly and persistent protagonist of the earlier books, but older, melancholic, more cautious, less sure. This limitation is heightened by her division from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to depart in pursuit of that innocent part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which saw Lyra undertake a adventurous trek across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with wonder and danger on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in play, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the church's ruling body, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of strict, procedural malice – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – Lyra's uncle, who blames her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of leader of the church's governing body, and is determined on using his fresh influence to broaden the institution's control. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued young the heroine to security along a flooded river as an young boy in the first book, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in espionage: he is dispatched to Geneva to discover more about Delamare's intentions. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and costly rose oil which appears mysteriously to be the cause of a social and economic crisis emanating out from that area. The extract is seen by various factions as a tradeable good, by others as a scientific or spiritual phenomenon, and by yet others – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of darkness; an challenge that must be destroyed. The question of its source, its significance, and if it should be removed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
As in the first series, the heroine's deeds, and her destiny, are shown to be inseparably connected with the destiny of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran largely in tandem. In The Rose Field, they merge. Similar to the original series, Lyra's movements and her destiny are shown to be inextricably woven with the future of the world. Her private mission to reconnect with her daemon and rediscover her creativity becomes the central battleground in a wider battle with an oppressive government which, as such regimes often attempt, is attempting to suppress autonomy of reason, creativity and art: all the personal, defiant ways in which people can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The novel starts with the unveiling of a set of unusual fissures in the fabric of the world's air: portals that look to open into alternate realities. One such window manifests to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The church, with its leader at its helm, designates these portals as a problem to the religion's doctrine and aims to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from strict logic and return to feeling, yet, her conviction that these sites must be protected – that what they stand for and what they provide is mysteriously essential – increases. "Dust, or the extract, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a philosophical tussle between innocence and knowledge is set.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
