Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that seems, in this volume especially, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along new and troubling lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is draining from governments, and gathering in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of corporations, the grasp of mobs. "Something is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and strong are weakening and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Precisely what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the inquiry that animates this final volume, which picks up where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's last foray into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling world he first revealed three decades past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a world whose terrain maps on to that of our world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the people look and reason and act like us, but are paired by daemons, essences in creature form; where the air are filled with sorceresses and gryphons, but underneath, vehicles are taken and beverages is consumed, and mature academics carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still distinctly the spiky and determined main character of the prior volumes, but aged, sadder, more cautious, less sure. This limitation is heightened by her separation from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that youthful part of her which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, meeting with marvel and peril on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the religious governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of strict, administrative wickedness – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's relative, who blames her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of leader of the church's governing body, and is determined on using his recently acquired authority to extend the institution's rule. Another protagonist, who saved infant Lyra to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an child in the first book, is now an academic with a sideline in spycraft: he is sent to the city to learn more about the antagonist's plans. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and costly botanical extract which appears in some way to be the source of a societal and economic disturbance spreading out from Central Asia. The substance is viewed by various factions as a commercial commodity, by others as a empirical or spiritual miracle, and by others still – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a source of darkness; an challenge that must be eradicated. The issue of its origins, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions, and her destiny, are shown to be deeply entwined with the future of the realm
In its predecessor, these narratives ran mostly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they merge. Like the original series, Lyra's movements and her destiny are shown to be inseparably linked with the fate of the universe. Her private quest to reconnect with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the key battleground in a larger conflict with an authoritarian government which, as such authorities typically do, is attempting to suppress autonomy of reason, originality and culture: all the internal, defiant ways in which people can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The book starts with the unveiling of a series of curious fissures in the structure of the planet's sky: gateways that appear to open into other worlds. An example of a portal manifests to be the point of the much debated rose oil. The church, with the antagonist at its leadership, classifies these portals as a challenge to the church's beliefs and aims to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to move from inflexible rationalism and back to intuition, however, her conviction that these locations must be defended – that their meaning and what they provide is mysteriously essential – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a poetic conflict between naivety and maturity is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
