Things are unraveling in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a realm that appears, now more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or restructuring themselves along novel and disturbing 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 draining from states, and accumulating in the halls of religious leaders, the treasuries of business empires, the control of mobs. "Some force is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and solid are weakening and failing."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the inquiry that animates The Rose Field, which continues where its predecessor ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's final foray into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating world he first revealed three decades past, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose geography maps on to that of this world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and reason and act like us, but are joined by animal souls, essences in beast form; where the skies are populated with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but below, transports are taken and beverages is drunk, and mature academics carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the first volume, the prequel with which Pullman began the series, is now a mature individual: still clearly the prickly and determined main character of the earlier books, but aged, melancholic, more careful, more doubtful. This limitation is heightened by her division from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to leave in pursuit of that innocent part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an quality which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which followed the protagonist undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with marvel and peril on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in play, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of rigid, administrative wickedness – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's family member, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the role of head of the church's ruling assembly, and is set on using his recently acquired power to extend the institution's dominium. A key character, who rescued young the heroine to safety along a flooded Thames as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is dispatched to Geneva to learn more about his plans. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and costly botanical extract which appears somehow to be the cause of a societal and financial crisis rippling out from the region. The oil is viewed by some as a commercial good, by others as a scientific or esoteric phenomenon, and by further factions – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an insult that must be destroyed. The dilemma of its origins, what it stands for, and whether it should be removed or preserved is escalating in importance.
Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's deeds, and her future, are revealed to be inseparably linked with the fate of the universe
In the previous volume, these storylines ran mostly in parallel. In the conclusion, they come together. Like the first trilogy, Lyra's movements and her fate are unveiled to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the realm. Her personal quest to reunite with her soul and rediscover her creativity becomes the primary struggle in a broader conflict with an controlling system which, as these systems always have, is attempting to suppress freedom of reason, originality and culture: all the inner, rebellious ways in which humans can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The story opens with the discovery of a series of strange fissures in the makeup of the planet's atmosphere: windows that look to lead to other worlds. A particular portal manifests to be the origin of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The authority, with the antagonist at its helm, classifies these openings as a challenge to the church's beliefs and aims to destroy them. As Lyra begins to turn away from inflexible logic and return to feeling, however, her conviction that these locations must be defended – that their significance and what they offer is mysteriously essential – strengthens. "The substance, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a poetic tussle between purity and knowledge is set.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
