Things are collapsing in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a realm that manifests, here more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from authorities, and accumulating in the offices of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the grasp of mobs. "Some force is at work, very quietly, gradually", says businessman a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and solid are faltering and failing."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Just what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that propels the concluding book, which picks up where the previous book left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's final foray into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting world he first revealed three decades past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose geography maps on to that of the real world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the people look and think and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, souls in creature form; where the air are teeming with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, transports are caught and drinks is consumed, and older scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a child in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the first volume, the prequel with which Pullman began the series, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the prickly and tenacious main character of the prior volumes, but aged, sadder, more careful, less sure. This limitation is intensified by her split from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to leave in search of that innocent part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an trait which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a wandering journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with amazement and risk on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in action, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the religious governing authority, and the author's brilliantly sinister embodiment of austere, administrative wickedness – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's family member, who blames her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the role of president of the church's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his recently acquired influence to extend the institution's control. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued infant Lyra to security along a swollen Thames as an child in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in espionage: he is sent to a key location to learn more about Delamare's aims. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and precious essential oil which manifests mysteriously to be the origin of a societal and economic crisis emanating out from the region. The substance is seen by some as a marketable commodity, by others as a scientific or spiritual wonder, and by yet others – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of darkness; an insult that must be obliterated. The question of its origins, what it stands for, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's deeds, and her destiny, are revealed to be deeply connected with the destiny of the universe
In its predecessor, these narratives ran mostly in parallel. In the conclusion, they come together. Like His Dark Materials, the protagonist's choices and her path are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the world. Her private journey to reconnect with her daemon and recover her vision becomes the primary struggle in a larger battle with an oppressive government which, as such regimes often attempt, is seeking to stifle autonomy of reason, originality and art: all the inner, resistant ways in which humans can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The book begins with the finding of a collection of curious cracks in the fabric of the world's atmosphere: portals that look to lead to alternate realities. One such window seems to be the source of the highly contested botanical substance. The authority, with its leader at its head, designates these windows as a challenge to the institution's orthodoxy and sets out to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from rigid rationalism and return to feeling, yet, her certainty that these locations must be protected – that their significance and what they provide is mysteriously vital – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a philosophical conflict between naivety and experience is set.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
