Things are collapsing in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a universe that appears, now more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along new and troubling lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from authorities, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the control of mobs. "Some force is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says trader a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were stable and solid are faltering and failing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Just what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that drives this final volume, which resumes where its predecessor ended. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's final excursion into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling world he first introduced three decades past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography maps on to that of our world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans look and think and act like us, but are accompanied by daemons, essences in animal form; where the heavens are filled with witches and mythical beasts, but underneath, buses are ridden and drinks is drunk, and older professors carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the prequel, the origin story with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a adult: still recognisably the sharp and determined protagonist of the prior volumes, but older, melancholic, warier, less sure. This limitation is intensified by her separation from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
The daemon's resolve to go off in pursuit of that childlike part of her which she appears to have shed (an trait which he represents as her "imagination"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a wandering journey across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with wonder and peril on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the religious governing authority, and Pullman's masterfully eerie embodiment of rigid, administrative wickedness – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the role of president of the church's ruling assembly, and is set on using his fresh authority to extend the church's dominium. Another protagonist, who carried young the heroine to safety along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in espionage: he is dispatched to a key location to learn more about Delamare's aims. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and costly rose oil which seems mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and economic upheaval spreading out from Central Asia. The substance is viewed by some as a commercial good, by different parties as a empirical or esoteric phenomenon, and by others still – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a source of evil; an insult that must be obliterated. The issue of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be removed or protected is escalating in importance.
Similar to His Dark Materials, our protagonist's deeds, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inextricably connected with the destiny of the universe
In its predecessor, these plots ran mostly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they come together. Like the original series, Lyra's actions and her path are revealed to be inseparably entwined with the future of the universe. Her personal quest to reconnect with her companion and recover her vision becomes the central struggle in a larger war with an authoritarian system which, as such regimes often attempt, is attempting to suppress independence of thought, innovation and art: all the personal, defiant ways in which individuals can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The story opens with the unveiling of a set of curious openings in the fabric of the planet's sky: portals that look to lead to different dimensions. One such window seems to be the origin of the highly contested rose oil. The authority, with Delamare at its leadership, labels these openings as a challenge to the church's beliefs and aims to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from inflexible logic and return to intuition, yet, her belief that these places must be defended – that their meaning and what they offer is somehow vital – strengthens. "Dust, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a philosophical struggle between innocence and knowledge is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
