Tings are collapsing in the final volume 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 energized and tilted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or restructuring themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from governments, and accumulating in the halls of religious leaders, the coffers of business empires, the hands of rioters. "Some force is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were stable and strong are deteriorating and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that propels this final volume, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's last venture into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating realm he first revealed in the distant past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a world whose landscape maps on to that of the real world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the humans appear and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, souls in beast form; where the skies are filled with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, vehicles are taken and beverages is sipped, and older professors carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a child in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still clearly the spiky and determined protagonist of the prior volumes, but older, melancholic, warier, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her separation from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to depart in pursuit of that childlike part of her which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with amazement and danger on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in action, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the faith's controlling power, and Pullman's masterfully eerie embodiment of strict, bureaucratic evil – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. The antagonist – Lyra's uncle, who blames her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the position of president of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is set on using his recently acquired influence to broaden the institution's control. Malcolm Polstead, who carried baby the heroine to refuge along a swollen Thames as an young boy in the prequel, is now an academic with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is sent to Geneva to find out more about his intentions. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and precious essential oil which appears in some way to be the origin of a social and financial upheaval emanating out from the region. The substance is seen by various factions as a tradeable product, by alternate groups as a empirical or esoteric miracle, and by yet others – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a source of darkness; an affront that must be eradicated. The issue of its source, its meaning, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is becoming urgent.
Like the original trilogy, the heroine's actions, and her future, are revealed to be inseparably connected with the fate of the world
In its predecessor, these narratives ran broadly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they merge. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's movements and her destiny are revealed to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the realm. Her private mission to reconnect with her companion and regain her vision becomes the central battleground in a wider battle with an controlling system which, as such regimes often attempt, is striving to suppress freedom of thinking, originality and culture: all the inner, resistant ways in which people can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The story opens with the finding of a set of unusual openings in the structure of the world's air: gateways that look to give on to alternate realities. An example of a portal manifests to be the source of the much debated mystical extract. The authority, with Delamare at its head, labels these portals as a problem to the religion's orthodoxy and aims to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to move from inflexible reason and back to intuition, nevertheless, her conviction that these places must be protected – that what they stand for and their value is mysteriously vital – grows. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a philosophical struggle between innocence and maturity is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
