Tings are collapsing in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that seems, now more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reassembling themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from states, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the control of rioters. "Something is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and durable are deteriorating and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Precisely what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that propels the concluding book, which picks up where the previous book ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's last foray into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting world he first revealed 30 years ago, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose landscape maps on to that of this world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the humans look and reason and behave like us, but are joined by daemons, souls in beast form; where the skies are filled with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, buses are ridden and beverages is sipped, and middle-aged professors carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the first volume, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still recognisably the prickly and tenacious heroine of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, more cautious, less certain. This restraint is amplified by her division from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to depart in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an trait which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous journey across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and risk on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in motion, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the church's controlling power, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of austere, bureaucratic wickedness – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's uncle, who blames her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the role of leader of the authority's High Council, and is intent on using his fresh authority to extend the church's dominium. Another protagonist, who rescued baby the heroine to safety along a flooded river as an young boy in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in intelligence work: he is assigned to the city to find out more about Delamare's intentions. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and costly rose oil which manifests in some way to be the origin of a societal and economic upheaval spreading out from Central Asia. The extract is regarded by various factions as a commercial product, by others as a research-based or spiritual phenomenon, and by yet others – the extremist "highland figures" – as a wellspring of evil; an affront that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its origins, what it stands for, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Similar to His Dark Materials, the heroine's decisions, and her destiny, are revealed to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the world
In its predecessor, these narratives ran mostly in parallel. In the conclusion, they come together. Similar to the first trilogy, her movements and her destiny are shown to be inextricably woven with the future of the realm. Her personal mission to rejoin with her soul and regain her creativity becomes the key battleground in a larger battle with an controlling government which, as such regimes often attempt, is striving to stifle freedom of reason, originality and culture: all the personal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The book starts with the discovery of a series of strange cracks in the makeup of the planet's air: windows that look to give on to alternate realities. An example of a portal manifests to be the origin of the much debated botanical substance. The authority, with Delamare at its helm, labels these windows as a challenge to the religion's orthodoxy and sets out to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from rigid reason and revert to feeling, nevertheless, her certainty that these places must be defended – that their meaning and their value is mysteriously crucial – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a poetic tussle between naivety and maturity is set.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
