Tings are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that seems, now more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or restructuring themselves along new and troubling lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from states, and accumulating in the chambers of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the hands of rioters. "Some force is at work, stealthily, gradually", says businessman a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Things we thought were firm and solid are weakening and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Precisely what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that propels the concluding book, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final venture into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling world he first revealed in the distant past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose landscape aligns with that of the real world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the humans appear and think and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, souls in creature form; where the air are filled with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but below, transports are taken and tea is sipped, and older academics carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the sharp and determined main character of the earlier books, but aged, melancholic, warier, less certain. This circumscription is intensified by her separation from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to go off in search of that childlike part of her which she appears to have shed (an quality which he represents as her "vision"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous trek across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and peril on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in play, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the church's governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling incarnation of strict, procedural evil – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's relative, who blames her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of leader of the church's governing body, and is set on using his recently acquired authority to broaden the institution's rule. Another protagonist, who saved baby Lyra to safety along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is dispatched to Geneva to find out more about the antagonist's aims. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and precious essential oil which seems mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and economic crisis emanating out from that area. The substance is viewed by certain groups as a marketable good, by alternate groups as a empirical or spiritual wonder, and by yet others – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a origin of darkness; an affront that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be removed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions, and her future, are revealed to be inextricably linked with the future of the realm
In its predecessor, these plots ran mostly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they merge. Similar to the first trilogy, Lyra's actions and her fate are revealed to be inextricably woven with the future of the realm. Her individual mission to reunite with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the primary battleground in a larger battle with an controlling government which, as such authorities always have, is attempting to suppress freedom of reason, originality and art: all the personal, defiant ways in which humans can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The book begins with the discovery of a collection of strange openings in the structure of the Earth's sky: gateways that appear to give on to different dimensions. A particular portal seems to be the point of the much debated botanical substance. The church, with the antagonist at its leadership, designates these portals as a threat to the religion's orthodoxy and sets out to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from inflexible rationalism and back to feeling, however, her belief that these locations must be defended – that their meaning and what they offer is mysteriously crucial – grows. "The substance, or the substance, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a poetic struggle between purity and experience is set.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
