Things are unraveling in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that seems, in this volume especially, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along new and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is draining from states, and accumulating in the chambers of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the control of crowds. "An element is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and strong are faltering and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Exactly what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that drives this final volume, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's concluding venture into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating world he first revealed 30 years ago, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose landscape maps on to that of the real world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals look and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, souls in animal form; where the skies are filled with sorceresses and gryphons, but underneath, transports are caught and drinks is consumed, and mature scholars carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a child in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still recognisably the prickly and determined heroine of the previous installments, but older, more sorrowful, more cautious, less sure. This limitation is amplified by her split from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to depart in pursuit of that youthful part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with amazement and risk on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the religious governing authority, and the author's brilliantly sinister embodiment of rigid, procedural wickedness – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's family member, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of president of the church's governing body, and is set on using his fresh power to broaden the institution's control. Another protagonist, who rescued baby the heroine to refuge along a flooded river as an child in the first book, is now an academic with a secondary role in espionage: he is assigned to the city to discover more about the antagonist's plans. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and costly essential oil which appears mysteriously to be the origin of a societal and financial upheaval spreading out from that area. The substance is regarded by certain groups as a marketable product, by others as a research-based or mystical phenomenon, and by others still – the extremist "highland figures" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an affront that must be obliterated. The issue of its source, its significance, and whether it should be destroyed or protected is becoming urgent.
Like the original trilogy, our protagonist's deeds, and her future, are demonstrated to be deeply linked with the fate of the realm
In its predecessor, these narratives ran largely in side by side. In this final book, they converge. Similar to the original series, the protagonist's choices and her path are shown to be inextricably woven with the fate of the world. Her individual quest to reunite with her companion and recover her vision becomes the central battleground in a wider battle with an oppressive system which, as such authorities typically do, is seeking to stifle freedom of thinking, creativity and art: all the inner, rebellious ways in which humans can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The book opens with the unveiling of a collection of strange fissures in the fabric of the Earth's air: gateways that appear to lead to other worlds. A particular opening appears to be the point of the much debated mystical extract. The church, with the antagonist at its head, classifies these windows as a challenge to the institution's doctrine and endeavors to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to move from inflexible logic and revert to instinct, nevertheless, her certainty that these places must be preserved – that their meaning and what they provide is somehow crucial – grows. "Dust, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or whatever we name it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a poetic struggle between innocence and knowledge is prepared.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
