Tings are unraveling in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that appears, now more than ever, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from states, and gathering in the offices of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the grasp of crowds. "Some force is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and strong are weakening and failing."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which picks up where the previous book concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's last excursion into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling realm he first revealed 30 years ago, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose terrain aligns with that of this world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the people look and think and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, beings in creature form; where the heavens are teeming with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, buses are caught and tea is consumed, and middle-aged professors carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a child in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the first volume, the prequel with which Pullman began the series, is now a adult: still clearly the spiky and determined main character of the prior volumes, but aged, more sorrowful, more cautious, less certain. This limitation is heightened by her division from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to leave in search of that youthful part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an trait which he represents as her "imagination"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which chronicled Lyra undertake a adventurous journey across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with marvel and peril on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in play, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the church's governing authority, and the author's brilliantly sinister embodiment of strict, administrative wickedness – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's family member, who blames her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of leader of the church's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his recently acquired influence to extend the religion's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who saved baby the heroine to security along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in spycraft: he is assigned to a key location to learn more about his plans. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and costly rose oil which appears mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and economic disturbance spreading out from the region. The extract is viewed by certain groups as a commercial product, by different parties as a scientific or spiritual wonder, and by further factions – the zealous "highland figures" – as a origin of darkness; an affront that must be obliterated. The question of where it comes from, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Similar to the first series, our protagonist's actions, and her fate, are shown to be inextricably connected with the future of the universe
In its predecessor, these narratives ran mostly in side by side. In this final book, they merge. As in the original series, Lyra's choices and her destiny are unveiled to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the realm. Her personal mission to reconnect with her soul and rediscover her creativity becomes the primary battleground in a broader battle with an oppressive government which, as these systems typically do, is striving to suppress independence of thinking, originality and expression: all the internal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The book starts with the finding of a collection of curious fissures in the fabric of the planet's atmosphere: gateways that seem to give on to different dimensions. A particular portal seems to be the point of the much debated mystical extract. The authority, with Delamare at its helm, labels these windows as a threat to the religion's beliefs and sets out to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from rigid reason and back to instinct, however, her conviction that these locations must be defended – that their significance and what they provide is in some way crucial – strengthens. "The substance, or the extract, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a philosophical tussle between purity and maturity is set.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
