Things are falling apart in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's masterful trilogies set in a universe that manifests, now more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along new and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from governments, and gathering in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the hands of mobs. "An element is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and solid are deteriorating and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Precisely what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that animates The Rose Field, which continues where the previous book concluded. This is, according to many, the author's concluding excursion into the elaborately built, deeply captivating universe he first revealed three decades past, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose geography maps on to that of this world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and behave like us, but are accompanied by daemons, souls in creature form; where the air are filled with enchantresses and gryphons, but beneath those skies, buses are ridden and tea is consumed, and middle-aged professors carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a adult: still recognisably the spiky and persistent main character of the earlier books, but older, sadder, more cautious, less sure. This restraint is heightened by her split from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to go off in quest of that innocent part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an trait which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a wandering journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and danger on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in play, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the religious ruling body, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister embodiment of austere, bureaucratic wickedness – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's family member, who blames her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of head of the Magisterium's High Council, and is intent on using his newfound authority to extend the church's rule. Another protagonist, who saved infant the heroine to safety along a overflowing Thames as an young boy in the first book, is now an university scholar with a sideline in spycraft: he is assigned to the city to find out more about the antagonist's plans. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and costly rose oil which manifests in some way to be the origin of a societal and financial crisis rippling out from the region. The oil is viewed by certain groups as a marketable commodity, by alternate groups as a scientific or spiritual miracle, and by others still – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an insult that must be eradicated. The question of where it comes from, what it stands for, and if it should be destroyed or preserved is becoming urgent.
Similar to the original trilogy, our protagonist's deeds, and her future, are demonstrated to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they merge. As in the first trilogy, Lyra's movements and her fate are shown to be inextricably woven with the future of the realm. Her personal mission to reconnect with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the key conflict in a larger war with an oppressive regime which, as such authorities always have, is seeking to quell freedom of reason, innovation and expression: all the personal, resistant ways in which people can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The book opens with the finding of a collection of strange openings in the makeup of the world's atmosphere: gateways that look to give on to alternate realities. An example of a window seems to be the source of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its leadership, designates these portals as a challenge to the church's doctrine and sets out to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to move from strict logic and return to instinct, however, her conviction that these places must be defended – that what they stand for and their value is somehow crucial – increases. "The substance, or the substance, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a philosophical tussle between naivety and knowledge is prepared.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
