Things are falling apart in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a world that appears, in this volume especially, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reassembling themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from governments, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the vaults of corporations, the control of crowds. "Something is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an city cafe. "Things we thought were stable and strong are deteriorating and giving way."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that drives The Rose Field, which resumes where its predecessor ended. This is, according to many, the author's last excursion into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling world he first introduced in the distant past, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose terrain aligns with that of the real world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the people appear and reason and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, essences in animal form; where the heavens are teeming with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, vehicles are taken and tea is sipped, and mature professors carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the prequel, the origin story with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still clearly the prickly and determined main character of the prior volumes, but older, melancholic, warier, less sure. This limitation is amplified by her separation from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to depart in search of that childlike part of her which she may have forgotten (an quality which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a adventurous journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, meeting with wonder and danger on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the church's governing authority, and the author's brilliantly sinister incarnation of rigid, administrative wickedness – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's uncle, who faults 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 fresh power to expand the church's control. Another protagonist, who carried infant the heroine to safety along a swollen Thames as an young boy in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in spycraft: he is dispatched to a key location to learn more about Delamare's intentions. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and precious essential oil which seems mysteriously to be the origin of a social and financial crisis emanating out from the region. The extract is seen by some as a marketable good, by different parties as a research-based or spiritual phenomenon, and by further factions – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a origin of malevolence; an insult that must be eradicated. The question of its source, its significance, and whether it should be removed or protected is escalating in importance.
As in the original trilogy, our protagonist's decisions, and her fate, are revealed to be deeply linked with the future of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran mostly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they converge. Similar to the original series, Lyra's movements and her path are unveiled to be inseparably woven with the destiny of the world. Her private mission to reunite with her daemon and regain her creativity becomes the central battleground in a wider battle with an oppressive regime which, as such regimes often attempt, is attempting to stifle freedom of thought, creativity and culture: all the internal, resistant ways in which people can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The novel opens with the unveiling of a collection of unusual openings in the structure of the world's sky: portals that appear to open into other worlds. A particular window seems to be the point of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The church, with Delamare at its leadership, designates these openings as a challenge to the church's orthodoxy and endeavors to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to shift from rigid rationalism and return to intuition, nevertheless, her certainty that these places must be defended – that what they stand for and what they offer is mysteriously vital – grows. "The substance, or rose oil, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we label it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a philosophical tussle between purity and knowledge is established.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
