Things are falling apart in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a realm that appears, in this volume especially, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along new and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is draining from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the control of crowds. "Some force is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and durable are faltering and giving way."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that animates The Rose Field, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding foray into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling world he first unveiled in the distant past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose terrain corresponds to that of this world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the people look and think and behave like us, but are joined by daemons, souls in beast form; where the skies are teeming with witches and legendary creatures, but underneath, transports are ridden and beverages is drunk, and middle-aged academics carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a adult: still clearly the spiky and tenacious protagonist of the earlier books, but more mature, sadder, more cautious, less certain. This limitation is heightened by her division from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to leave in pursuit of that youthful part of her which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which followed Lyra undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with wonder and danger on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in play, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the faith's ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister representation of strict, bureaucratic wickedness – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the office of president of the authority's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound influence to broaden the institution's control. Another protagonist, who carried infant the heroine to security along a overflowing river as an child in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in espionage: he is assigned to a key location to learn more about the antagonist's plans. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and costly essential oil which seems somehow to be the source of a societal and economic crisis spreading out from the region. The extract is regarded by some as a marketable product, by others as a research-based or mystical miracle, and by further factions – the extremist "highland figures" – as a origin of darkness; an affront that must be obliterated. The dilemma of where it comes from, its significance, and if it should be removed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Like His Dark Materials, our protagonist's deeds, and her future, are shown to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the world
In its predecessor, these plots ran broadly in parallel. In the conclusion, they converge. As in the original series, the protagonist's movements and her destiny are shown to be inseparably entwined with the future of the universe. Her personal quest to reunite with her soul and regain her imagination becomes the key struggle in a larger conflict with an oppressive system which, as such regimes typically do, is attempting to stifle independence of reason, originality and culture: all the personal, rebellious ways in which humans can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The story begins with the finding of a set of curious cracks in the fabric of the planet's air: portals that seem to lead to alternate realities. One such window seems to be the source of the much debated mystical extract. The authority, with Delamare at its leadership, designates these openings as a problem to the church's orthodoxy and aims to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to move from rigid rationalism and return to feeling, yet, her conviction that these locations must be preserved – that their significance and what they provide is somehow essential – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a poetic struggle between purity and knowledge is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
