Things are collapsing in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that manifests, now more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or reorganizing themselves along novel and troubling lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from governments, and accumulating in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of corporations, the hands of mobs. "Some force is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says merchant a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and strong are weakening and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Just what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that animates The Rose Field, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, by all accounts, the author's last excursion into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting universe he first unveiled three decades past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a world whose terrain corresponds to that of the real world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans look and reason and behave like us, but are joined by external spirits, essences in beast form; where the heavens are filled with enchantresses and gryphons, but below, transports are caught and drinks is drunk, and mature scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began this trilogy, is now a adult: still clearly the sharp and determined protagonist of the previous installments, but more mature, melancholic, warier, less certain. This restraint is amplified by her division from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to leave in search of that innocent part of her which she may have forgotten (an quality which he represents as her "vision"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a wandering journey across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with wonder and risk on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the faith's governing authority, and the author's brilliantly sinister incarnation of rigid, administrative malice – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's relative, who faults her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the role of head of the authority's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound influence to extend the church's dominium. Another protagonist, who saved young the heroine to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a sideline in espionage: he is sent to a key location to learn more about his intentions. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and valuable rose oil which seems somehow to be the source of a social and economic disturbance spreading out from that area. The oil is regarded by some as a tradeable product, by different parties as a research-based or mystical wonder, and by further factions – the extremist "highland figures" – as a wellspring of darkness; an insult that must be eradicated. The dilemma of where it comes from, its significance, and if it should be removed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to the first series, Lyra's actions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the universe
In its predecessor, these storylines ran mostly in side by side. In this final book, they merge. Like His Dark Materials, the protagonist's movements and her destiny are revealed to be inseparably woven with the future of the realm. Her personal mission to rejoin with her soul and recover her imagination becomes the key struggle in a larger war with an controlling system which, as these systems typically do, is seeking to quell autonomy of thought, innovation and culture: all the personal, resistant ways in which humans can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The novel begins with the unveiling of a collection of curious cracks in the makeup of the Earth's air: windows that appear to open into alternate realities. An example of a window manifests to be the origin of the highly contested rose oil. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its helm, labels these openings as a challenge to the church's orthodoxy and endeavors to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from inflexible logic and back to feeling, nevertheless, her conviction that these places must be protected – that what they stand for and what they provide is mysteriously crucial – increases. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a philosophical tussle between naivety and maturity is established.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
