Things are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that manifests, here more than ever, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is draining from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of business empires, the hands of rioters. "An element is at work, silently, very subtly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and strong are weakening and giving way."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Exactly what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that propels this final volume, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding foray into the elaborately built, deeply captivating world he first introduced 30 years ago, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose terrain aligns with that of the real world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, essences in animal form; where the heavens are populated with enchantresses and gryphons, but below, buses are ridden and tea is drunk, and middle-aged scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the prequel, the origin story with which Pullman began the series, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the spiky and persistent main character of the earlier books, but aged, more sorrowful, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her division from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
The daemon's resolve to leave in search of that youthful part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with amazement and peril on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in action, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the faith's ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister embodiment of austere, bureaucratic malice – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's uncle, who faults her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the office of head of the church's High Council, and is intent on using his recently acquired power to broaden the church's control. Malcolm Polstead, who carried baby the heroine to safety along a overflowing river as an young boy in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in espionage: he is dispatched to the city to discover more about the antagonist's intentions. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and precious rose oil which appears mysteriously to be the origin of a social and economic crisis emanating out from that area. The extract is viewed by various factions as a marketable product, by alternate groups as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by further factions – the zealous "highland figures" – as a source of darkness; an affront that must be eradicated. The question of its source, what it stands for, and whether it should be eliminated or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to the first series, Lyra's actions, and her fate, are revealed to be inseparably entwined with the fate of the universe
In its predecessor, these narratives ran broadly in parallel. In this final book, they merge. As in His Dark Materials, her actions and her fate are revealed to be inseparably linked with the future of the realm. Her personal mission to rejoin with her companion and recover her vision becomes the key struggle in a broader conflict with an authoritarian regime which, as these systems always have, is seeking to suppress independence of thought, originality and expression: all the internal, resistant ways in which humans can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The story starts with the discovery of a set of unusual fissures in the structure of the Earth's sky: gateways that look to lead to other worlds. One such portal seems to be the origin of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The church, with the antagonist at its leadership, designates these portals as a problem to the institution's orthodoxy and aims to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from rigid reason and revert to instinct, nevertheless, her conviction that these sites must be defended – that their significance and what they offer is in some way essential – strengthens. "The substance, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a poetic struggle between naivety and maturity is set.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
