Things are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that seems, here more than ever, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along new and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from states, and gathering in the offices of religious leaders, the vaults of conglomerates, the grasp of mobs. "Some force is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and durable are weakening and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Just what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the inquiry that animates The Rose Field, which picks up where its predecessor ended. This is, reportedly, the author's last venture into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating world he first revealed in the distant past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose geography maps on to that of the real world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the people look and reason and act like us, but are joined by animal souls, souls in animal form; where the heavens are teeming with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but below, transports are ridden and beverages is consumed, and older scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a child in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the prequel, the origin story with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the sharp and determined protagonist of the previous installments, but aged, sadder, more cautious, less sure. This circumscription is amplified by her division from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to go off in pursuit of that youthful part of her which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a adventurous voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with amazement and danger on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of rigid, administrative malice – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's family member, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of head of the Magisterium's governing body, and is determined on using his recently acquired authority to expand the church's control. Another protagonist, who carried baby the heroine to safety along a swollen Thames as an young boy in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in spycraft: he is assigned to Geneva to discover more about the antagonist's aims. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and precious essential oil which appears in some way to be the source of a social and financial disturbance emanating out from the region. The extract is regarded by certain groups as a tradeable product, by different parties as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by yet others – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a source of darkness; an challenge that must be eradicated. The dilemma of where it comes from, its significance, and whether it should be destroyed or preserved is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's decisions, and her fate, are demonstrated to be deeply linked with the fate of the world
In the previous volume, these narratives ran mostly in side by side. In the conclusion, they come together. As in the original series, Lyra's movements and her fate are shown to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the world. Her private mission to reunite with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the primary struggle in a wider battle with an controlling system which, as such authorities always have, is striving to suppress freedom of reason, innovation and expression: all the inner, resistant ways in which individuals can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The book begins with the finding of a series of curious fissures in the structure of the world's atmosphere: portals that seem to open into different dimensions. An example of a portal manifests to be the source of the much debated mystical extract. The authority, with Delamare at its head, labels these openings as a threat to the church's doctrine and endeavors to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to shift from strict logic and back to feeling, nevertheless, her certainty that these sites must be defended – that their meaning and their value is mysteriously crucial – strengthens. "Dust, or the substance, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a philosophical tussle between purity and experience is established.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
