Things are falling apart in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a realm that seems, here more than ever, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along novel and troubling lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from states, and pooling in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the hands of crowds. "Some force is at work, silently, very subtly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were stable and solid are weakening and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that drives this final volume, which picks up where the previous book ended. This is, according to many, the author's final venture into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating universe he first revealed 30 years ago, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose terrain aligns with that of this world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, beings in creature form; where the skies are filled with witches and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, buses are caught and beverages is consumed, and older scholars carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the first volume, the introductory book with which Pullman began the series, is now a adult: still distinctly the spiky and persistent main character of the prior volumes, but aged, more sorrowful, more careful, less sure. This circumscription is heightened by her separation from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to depart in pursuit of that youthful part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an quality which he represents as her "imagination"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous trek across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with amazement and risk on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the religious governing authority, and Pullman's masterfully eerie representation of austere, administrative malice – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's uncle, who blames her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the role of leader of the Magisterium's governing body, and is intent on using his recently acquired authority to expand the institution's control. A key character, who carried baby Lyra to safety along a swollen Thames as an young boy in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in intelligence work: he is assigned to the city to find out more about the antagonist's aims. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and valuable essential oil which manifests mysteriously to be the cause of a social and financial crisis spreading out from the region. The substance is regarded by some as a marketable good, by alternate groups as a scientific or spiritual wonder, and by further factions – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a source of evil; an affront that must be destroyed. The issue of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be removed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to the first series, our protagonist's decisions, and her destiny, are shown to be deeply connected with the future of the world
In the previous volume, these narratives ran mostly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they converge. As in the original series, her choices and her fate are shown to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the realm. Her personal journey to reconnect with her soul and rediscover her imagination becomes the central conflict in a larger war with an controlling system which, as such authorities often attempt, is striving to quell freedom of thought, creativity and expression: all the personal, resistant ways in which individuals can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The book opens with the finding of a set of unusual fissures in the structure of the world's atmosphere: portals that appear to give on to other worlds. An example of a portal seems to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The authority, with Delamare at its helm, labels these openings as a challenge to the institution's doctrine and aims to destroy them. As the heroine begins to shift from inflexible rationalism and revert to instinct, yet, her belief that these places must be preserved – that what they stand for and their value is mysteriously vital – strengthens. "Dust, or the extract, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a poetic conflict between innocence and maturity is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
