Things are collapsing in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's grand trilogies set in a world that appears, here more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from governments, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the grasp of rioters. "Something is at work, silently, very subtly", says trader a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and durable are faltering and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that propels The Rose Field, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, reportedly, Pullman's concluding excursion into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating world he first revealed three decades past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a world whose landscape maps on to that of our world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the people appear and reason and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, souls in beast form; where the heavens are teeming with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, vehicles are caught and drinks is sipped, and older academics carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the prequel, the introductory book with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a adult: still clearly the sharp and persistent main character of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, more cautious, less sure. This restraint is intensified by her split from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to leave in pursuit of that youthful part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an trait which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which chronicled Lyra undertake a wandering trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with marvel and peril on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in play, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the church's controlling power, and the author's brilliantly sinister embodiment of austere, administrative wickedness – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's family member, who faults her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the position of leader of the church's ruling assembly, and is set on using his recently acquired influence to expand the institution's control. Another protagonist, who rescued baby Lyra to safety along a swollen Thames 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 learn more about Delamare's intentions. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and valuable botanical extract which manifests mysteriously to be the cause of a social and economic disturbance rippling out from the region. The substance is viewed by certain groups as a tradeable commodity, by others as a research-based or esoteric phenomenon, and by others still – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of evil; an affront that must be eradicated. The dilemma of where it comes from, its significance, and if it should be removed or preserved is becoming urgent.
Similar to the original trilogy, Lyra's decisions, and her future, are demonstrated to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the universe
In its predecessor, these plots ran mostly in parallel. In this final book, they come together. Like His Dark Materials, the protagonist's movements and her path are shown to be inextricably linked with the future of the universe. Her individual quest to reunite with her soul and recover her vision becomes the primary battleground in a larger conflict with an authoritarian system which, as these systems always have, is attempting to stifle freedom of reason, innovation and art: all the internal, defiant ways in which people can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The book opens with the unveiling of a set of unusual fissures in the makeup of the Earth's air: windows that look to lead to other worlds. A particular portal seems to be the origin of the highly contested botanical substance. The church, with the antagonist at its leadership, labels these windows as a challenge to the church's beliefs and endeavors to destroy them. As Lyra begins to shift from strict logic and revert to instinct, however, her certainty that these sites must be preserved – that their significance and what they offer is in some way vital – grows. "The substance, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a philosophical struggle between innocence and maturity is established.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
