Tings are unraveling in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that manifests, now more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from states, and gathering in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the hands of mobs. "Something is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says trader a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and solid are weakening and giving way."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that animates the concluding book, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's last venture into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling world he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose geography corresponds to that of our world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and reason and behave like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, essences in creature form; where the skies are teeming with enchantresses and gryphons, but underneath, transports are ridden and beverages is consumed, and older academics carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still clearly the spiky and tenacious main character of the earlier books, but more mature, more sorrowful, warier, more doubtful. This restraint is intensified by her division from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to depart in pursuit of that innocent part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with amazement and danger on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in action, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the religious controlling power, and the author's deliciously chilling embodiment of strict, procedural malice – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's relative, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the role of head of the Magisterium's governing body, and is determined on using his fresh power to expand the church's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who carried infant the heroine to security along a swollen Thames as an child in the first book, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is assigned to Geneva to learn more about the antagonist's intentions. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and valuable botanical extract which appears in some way to be the source of a societal and financial upheaval emanating out from that area. The extract is regarded by various factions as a tradeable commodity, by different parties as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by others still – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a source of evil; 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, the heroine's deeds, and her future, are shown to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran mostly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they merge. Like His Dark Materials, her movements and her fate are revealed to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the world. Her personal journey to rejoin with her daemon and rediscover her creativity becomes the key battleground in a wider war with an oppressive regime which, as these systems typically do, is attempting to suppress autonomy of thought, creativity and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which humans can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The book starts with the unveiling of a collection of unusual openings in the fabric of the Earth's sky: gateways that appear to give on to other worlds. One such portal seems to be the source of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The church, with the antagonist at its leadership, classifies these openings as a challenge to the religion's orthodoxy and sets out to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to move from inflexible logic and revert to instinct, nevertheless, her belief that these locations must be protected – that their meaning and their value is in some way essential – grows. "Dust, or rose oil, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or whatever we label it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical tussle between purity and knowledge is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
