Tings are falling apart in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a world that seems, here more than ever, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from states, and accumulating in the offices of religious leaders, the vaults of conglomerates, the grasp of crowds. "Something is at work, silently, very subtly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were secure and solid are deteriorating and giving way."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that drives the concluding book, which resumes where its predecessor ended. This is, by all accounts, the author's final excursion into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting universe he first introduced 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a world whose terrain maps on to that of this world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and act like us, but are joined by animal souls, beings in creature form; where the skies are teeming with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, vehicles are ridden and beverages is sipped, and mature scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the first volume, the origin story with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still clearly the prickly and persistent heroine of the previous installments, but aged, melancholic, warier, less sure. This limitation is intensified by her division from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to leave in quest of that innocent part of her which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he represents as her "imagination"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with marvel and risk on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's masterfully eerie incarnation of strict, administrative wickedness – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. The antagonist – the heroine's relative, who blames her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of head of the church's High Council, and is intent on using his recently acquired influence to broaden the church's control. A key character, who saved infant the heroine to security along a overflowing river as an child in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in spycraft: he is assigned to a key location to learn more about the antagonist's intentions. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and costly rose oil which seems in some way to be the cause of a societal and financial crisis emanating out from the region. The substance is viewed by certain groups as a commercial good, by different parties as a scientific or esoteric phenomenon, and by yet others – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a origin of malevolence; an insult that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be destroyed or protected is escalating in importance.
Similar to the original trilogy, our protagonist's decisions, and her fate, are demonstrated to be deeply linked with the destiny of the world
In its predecessor, these storylines ran largely in tandem. In The Rose Field, they converge. Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's movements and her fate are unveiled to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the universe. Her private mission to reconnect with her companion and regain her vision becomes the primary battleground in a wider conflict with an controlling regime which, as such authorities often attempt, is attempting to stifle freedom of thinking, creativity and expression: all the internal, rebellious ways in which people can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The novel starts with the discovery of a series of strange cracks in the makeup of the Earth's atmosphere: portals that seem to lead to alternate realities. One such portal seems to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The authority, with Delamare at its helm, designates these portals as a problem to the religion's beliefs and sets out to destroy them. As Lyra begins to turn away from rigid logic and return to feeling, yet, her conviction that these places must be preserved – that their significance and what they provide is in some way vital – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a Blakean struggle between innocence and knowledge is prepared.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
