Tings are unraveling in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a universe that appears, now more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or reorganizing themselves along new and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from states, and accumulating in the offices of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the grasp of crowds. "Something is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and durable are deteriorating and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Just what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that drives The Rose Field, which resumes where its predecessor concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's last venture into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling universe he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose terrain maps on to that of this world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the people appear and reason and behave like us, but are joined by external spirits, souls in animal form; where the skies are teeming with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, vehicles are taken and beverages is drunk, and mature professors carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still distinctly the prickly and persistent protagonist of the previous installments, but more mature, melancholic, warier, more doubtful. This circumscription is heightened by her division from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that youthful part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an trait which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a wandering voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and risk on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in play, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the church's ruling body, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of strict, administrative malice – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – our protagonist's family member, who blames her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the office of head of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his fresh power to broaden the church's control. A key character, who carried baby the heroine to refuge along a swollen Thames as an young boy in the first book, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is assigned to the city to discover more about Delamare's plans. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and precious botanical extract which appears somehow to be the cause of a social and financial crisis rippling out from the region. The substance is seen by various factions as a commercial good, by others as a research-based or spiritual miracle, and by further factions – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an insult that must be obliterated. The question of where it comes from, its significance, and whether it should be destroyed or preserved is becoming urgent.
Like the first series, Lyra's deeds, and her fate, are revealed to be inseparably connected with the fate of the world
In its predecessor, these storylines ran mostly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they merge. As in the original series, her choices and her fate are unveiled to be inextricably linked with the fate of the universe. Her personal journey to rejoin with her companion and rediscover her vision becomes the primary conflict in a wider war with an authoritarian government which, as such authorities typically do, is striving to stifle autonomy of thought, innovation and art: all the inner, resistant ways in which individuals can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The story starts with the discovery of a collection of curious fissures in the fabric of the planet's atmosphere: gateways that seem to lead to alternate realities. An example of a opening appears to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The authority, with its leader at its helm, designates these openings as a problem to the institution's beliefs and sets out to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to shift from inflexible reason and revert to instinct, nevertheless, her certainty that these sites must be preserved – that their meaning and what they offer is mysteriously vital – strengthens. "The substance, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a poetic struggle between purity and experience is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
