Things are falling apart in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that manifests, here more than ever, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along new and troubling lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from authorities, and pooling in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of conglomerates, the control of rioters. "Something is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and strong are faltering and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Exactly what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that drives The Rose Field, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's last excursion into the elaborately built, deeply captivating world he first introduced 30 years ago, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a world whose terrain aligns with that of the real world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and think and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, essences in animal form; where the heavens are teeming with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, transports are caught and beverages is drunk, and mature professors carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the first volume, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still distinctly the spiky and determined main character of the prior volumes, but more mature, melancholic, more careful, less certain. This limitation is intensified by her division from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to leave in pursuit of that childlike part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which followed the protagonist undertake a wandering journey across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and risk on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in play, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of austere, administrative wickedness – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's family member, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the office of head of the authority's ruling assembly, and is set on using his fresh power to expand the church's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued infant Lyra to safety along a overflowing river as an young boy in the prequel, is now an academic with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to the city to learn more about his intentions. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and precious rose oil which manifests mysteriously to be the cause of a social and economic upheaval emanating out from that area. The substance is viewed by certain groups as a marketable product, by different parties as a scientific or esoteric miracle, and by yet others – the extremist "highland figures" – as a wellspring of evil; an insult that must be eradicated. The dilemma of where it comes from, what it stands for, and whether it should be eliminated or protected is becoming urgent.
Like the first series, Lyra's decisions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the world
In the previous volume, these storylines ran mostly in parallel. In this final book, they merge. Similar to His Dark Materials, her movements and her path are revealed to be deeply linked with the future of the universe. Her personal mission to reunite with her soul and recover her creativity becomes the primary conflict in a wider war with an controlling regime which, as such regimes typically do, is striving to stifle freedom of thinking, originality and expression: all the internal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The novel opens with the discovery of a series of curious openings in the structure of the world's air: windows that seem to lead to different dimensions. An example of a window manifests to be the point of the much debated mystical extract. The authority, with its leader at its head, designates these openings as a threat to the institution's orthodoxy and endeavors to destroy them. As the heroine begins to turn away from inflexible logic and revert to intuition, nevertheless, her belief that these sites must be defended – that their significance and what they offer is somehow vital – increases. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a poetic conflict between naivety and experience is set.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
