Things are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that manifests, now more than ever, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from states, and accumulating in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the control of rioters. "Some force is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and strong are deteriorating and giving way."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that propels this final volume, which picks up where the previous book ended. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding excursion into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling universe he first introduced three decades past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose terrain corresponds to that of this world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans look and reason and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, beings in beast form; where the skies are populated with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, vehicles are caught and tea is consumed, and older professors carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the prequel, the origin story with which the author began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still clearly the prickly and determined main character of the previous installments, but older, sadder, warier, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her split from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to leave in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she appears to have shed (an trait which he represents as her "creativity"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which followed Lyra undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with amazement and danger on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the religious controlling power, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of rigid, administrative wickedness – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. The antagonist – Lyra's relative, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the role of president of the church's High Council, and is determined on using his fresh power to extend the religion's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued young Lyra to security along a flooded Thames as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an academic with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is dispatched to a key location to find out more about his plans. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and precious essential oil which manifests in some way to be the origin of a societal and economic upheaval rippling out from that area. The substance is viewed by various factions as a tradeable good, by different parties as a empirical or esoteric wonder, and by further factions – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a origin of malevolence; an affront that must be eradicated. The dilemma of where it comes from, what it stands for, and whether it should be eliminated or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Like the first series, the heroine's actions, and her fate, are demonstrated to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the world
In the previous volume, these plots ran mostly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they come together. Like the original series, the protagonist's actions and her destiny are revealed to be inextricably woven with the destiny of the world. Her individual journey to reconnect with her daemon and regain her creativity becomes the key battleground in a larger battle with an authoritarian regime which, as such regimes typically do, is attempting to stifle autonomy of reason, creativity and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which people can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The story begins with the finding of a set of unusual fissures in the structure of the Earth's atmosphere: windows that look to open into alternate realities. One such portal seems to be the source of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The Magisterium, with its leader at its head, labels these windows as a challenge to the institution's beliefs and sets out to destroy them. As the heroine begins to shift from inflexible logic and revert to feeling, yet, her belief that these locations must be preserved – that their meaning and their value is in some way crucial – strengthens. "Dust, or the substance, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a poetic tussle between purity and knowledge is established.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
