Tings are collapsing in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that seems, in this volume especially, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from governments, and accumulating in the chambers of religious leaders, the treasuries of corporations, the control of rioters. "Something is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and durable are deteriorating and failing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Exactly what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the inquiry that animates this final volume, which resumes where its predecessor concluded. This is, by all accounts, the author's final excursion into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting realm he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose geography aligns with that of our world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and reason and behave like us, but are paired by animal souls, beings in animal form; where the heavens are populated with witches and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, vehicles are taken and drinks is consumed, and mature scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still clearly the prickly and determined heroine of the previous installments, but older, sadder, warier, less certain. This limitation is intensified by her separation from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to depart in pursuit of that childlike part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with amazement and risk on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in play, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the church's governing authority, and the author's brilliantly sinister incarnation of strict, procedural malice – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. The antagonist – Lyra's relative, who blames her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of leader of the church's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his fresh authority to broaden the religion's rule. Another protagonist, who rescued young the heroine to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an child in the first book, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in espionage: he is sent to a key location to discover more about his aims. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and valuable rose oil which manifests somehow to be the cause of a social and economic disturbance spreading out from that area. The oil is viewed by certain groups as a tradeable good, by different parties as a research-based or mystical wonder, and by yet others – the extremist "highland figures" – as a wellspring of darkness; an affront that must be eradicated. The question of where it comes from, its significance, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Similar to His Dark Materials, our protagonist's decisions, and her future, are demonstrated to be inextricably connected with the future of the realm
In the previous volume, these storylines ran mostly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they merge. Similar to the first trilogy, Lyra's choices and her fate are shown to be deeply entwined with the future of the realm. Her personal journey to rejoin with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the primary struggle in a broader war with an authoritarian regime which, as such regimes often attempt, is striving to suppress autonomy of reason, innovation and expression: all the internal, defiant ways in which humans can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The novel opens with the unveiling of a series of strange fissures in the fabric of the planet's sky: gateways that look to lead to alternate realities. A particular window seems to be the point of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The authority, with Delamare at its leadership, classifies these portals as a threat to the institution's doctrine and endeavors to destroy them. As the heroine begins to move from rigid rationalism and return to intuition, however, her belief that these sites must be preserved – that their significance and what they provide is mysteriously vital – strengthens. "Dust, or the extract, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we label it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a philosophical struggle between innocence and maturity is set.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
