Things are falling apart in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a world that appears, here more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from governments, and accumulating in the chambers of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the hands of mobs. "Something is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and strong are deteriorating and giving way."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that animates this final volume, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, reportedly, Pullman's last excursion into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling world he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose landscape maps on to that of our world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the people look and reason and behave like us, but are paired by animal souls, essences in beast form; where the heavens are teeming with witches and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, vehicles are ridden and tea is drunk, and older scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a child in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the prequel, the origin story with which Pullman began the series, is now a young woman: still recognisably the spiky and determined protagonist of the previous installments, but older, sadder, more careful, less certain. This restraint is amplified by her separation from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to go off in search of that innocent part of her which she appears to have shed (an trait which he represents as her "vision"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which chronicled Lyra undertake a adventurous trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with wonder and risk on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in action, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the religious ruling body, and Pullman's masterfully eerie representation of rigid, bureaucratic malice – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's uncle, who faults her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the position of president of the authority's governing body, and is set on using his fresh power to broaden the religion's rule. A key character, who carried infant the heroine to security 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 sent to the city to find out more about his intentions. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and costly rose oil which appears in some way to be the source of a societal and financial disturbance emanating out from that area. The substance is regarded by certain groups as a tradeable good, by different parties as a empirical or mystical phenomenon, and by yet others – the zealous "highland figures" – as a origin of darkness; an affront that must be obliterated. The issue of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Like the first series, our protagonist's actions, and her future, are shown to be deeply connected with the destiny of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran broadly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they come together. Like the first trilogy, Lyra's movements and her destiny are unveiled to be deeply woven with the future of the realm. Her individual journey to rejoin with her soul and rediscover her vision becomes the central conflict in a wider battle with an oppressive government which, as such regimes typically do, is striving to stifle autonomy of thought, creativity and art: all the inner, resistant ways in which individuals can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The story starts with the finding of a collection of curious openings in the fabric of the planet's air: gateways that seem to give on to different dimensions. One such opening manifests to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its leadership, designates these portals as a challenge to the institution's beliefs and sets out to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to move from strict rationalism and back to instinct, yet, her belief that these locations must be preserved – that their meaning and their value is mysteriously essential – strengthens. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a philosophical struggle between innocence and knowledge is established.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
