Tings are collapsing in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that appears, here more than ever, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reorganizing themselves along novel and troubling lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from governments, and accumulating in the halls of religious leaders, the coffers of conglomerates, the control of crowds. "An element is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his seat in an city cafe. "Things we thought were secure and strong are weakening and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Exactly what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that animates The Rose Field, which picks up where its predecessor left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding foray into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling world he first revealed three decades past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose landscape aligns with that of this world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are paired by daemons, souls in beast form; where the air are teeming with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, transports are caught and beverages is consumed, and older scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the first volume, the origin story with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still clearly the sharp and persistent heroine of the previous installments, but more mature, more sorrowful, more careful, less sure. This limitation is heightened by her split from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to depart in search of that childlike part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an trait which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which followed Lyra undertake a adventurous journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with marvel and peril on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in play, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the religious controlling power, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of rigid, administrative wickedness – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's uncle, who faults her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his newfound authority to expand the religion's control. Another protagonist, who rescued young the heroine to security along a flooded Thames as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in espionage: he is dispatched to the city to find out more about his plans. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and valuable rose oil which manifests somehow to be the origin of a social and financial crisis emanating out from the region. The substance is regarded by certain groups as a tradeable good, by different parties as a research-based or spiritual phenomenon, and by further factions – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of darkness; an insult that must be destroyed. The question of its source, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like the original trilogy, Lyra's deeds, and her future, are shown to be deeply connected with the fate of the realm
In its predecessor, these plots ran broadly in tandem. In the conclusion, they come together. Like the first trilogy, her choices and her path are unveiled to be deeply woven with the fate of the realm. Her individual mission to reconnect with her soul and rediscover her vision becomes the central struggle in a broader battle with an oppressive government which, as these systems always have, is attempting to stifle freedom of thinking, innovation and culture: all the inner, rebellious ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The story opens with the finding of a collection of unusual cracks in the makeup of the planet's atmosphere: windows that seem to lead to other worlds. A particular opening appears to be the source of the highly contested mystical extract. The authority, with Delamare at its head, designates these windows as a problem to the religion's orthodoxy and endeavors to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to move from strict rationalism and return to intuition, yet, her certainty that these locations must be protected – that their significance and what they offer is in some way vital – grows. "Dust, or the substance, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a poetic conflict between purity and experience is established.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
