Things are collapsing in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a universe that seems, in this volume especially, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or restructuring themselves along new and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is wrecking 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 offices of religious leaders, the coffers of business empires, the control of crowds. "Some force is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his post in an city cafe. "Things we thought were firm and durable are deteriorating and giving way."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that propels The Rose Field, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, by all accounts, the author's final excursion into the elaborately built, deeply captivating world he first revealed 30 years ago, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a world whose landscape corresponds to that of this world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans look and think and act like us, but are joined by daemons, essences in creature form; where the air are populated with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, buses are caught and beverages is drunk, and older professors carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a child in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still clearly the spiky and tenacious protagonist of the prior volumes, but more mature, more sorrowful, warier, more doubtful. This limitation is heightened by her division from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to depart in quest of that youthful part of her which she appears to have shed (an trait which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with wonder and danger on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in play, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the faith's ruling body, and the author's masterfully eerie incarnation of rigid, procedural evil – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's relative, who faults her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of leader of the Magisterium's governing body, and is determined on using his recently acquired influence to extend the institution's control. A key character, who rescued infant the heroine to safety along a overflowing river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is assigned to the city to find out more about his plans. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and costly rose oil which manifests mysteriously to be the cause of a social and economic crisis spreading out from Central Asia. The substance is regarded by certain groups as a tradeable product, by others as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by yet others – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of darkness; an affront that must be destroyed. The issue of its origins, its meaning, and whether it should be eliminated or protected is becoming urgent.
Similar to the original trilogy, the heroine's actions, and her destiny, are revealed to be inextricably connected with the destiny of the universe
In the previous volume, these plots ran broadly in tandem. In the conclusion, they merge. Similar to His Dark Materials, her choices and her path are unveiled to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the realm. Her individual mission to reunite with her companion and regain her creativity becomes the primary conflict in a larger battle with an oppressive system which, as these systems often attempt, is seeking to quell freedom of thinking, innovation and culture: all the personal, rebellious ways in which humans can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The story begins with the discovery of a series of curious openings in the structure of the Earth's atmosphere: gateways that appear to give on to different dimensions. An example of a window seems to be the origin of the much debated mystical extract. The church, with its leader at its head, designates these openings as a problem to the religion's orthodoxy and sets out to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to move from rigid rationalism and revert to intuition, nevertheless, her certainty that these places must be protected – that their meaning and what they provide is in some way vital – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a poetic tussle between purity and maturity is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
