Things are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a universe that appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is draining from states, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of business empires, the grasp of rioters. "Something is at work, very quietly, gradually", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an city cafe. "Things we thought were secure and solid are faltering 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 the concluding book, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's final excursion into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting world he first introduced in the distant past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are paired by daemons, essences in creature form; where the heavens are populated with witches and legendary creatures, but underneath, buses are caught and drinks is consumed, and older scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still clearly the sharp and determined protagonist of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, warier, more doubtful. This limitation is heightened by her division from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to go off in pursuit of that youthful part of her which she seems to have lost (an quality which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and danger on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in action, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's masterfully eerie embodiment of austere, administrative malice – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's relative, who faults her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the position of head of the church's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his newfound authority to expand the religion's control. Another protagonist, who saved young Lyra to security along a overflowing Thames as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in espionage: he is sent to Geneva to learn more about his plans. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and precious rose oil which seems somehow to be the source of a social and financial disturbance emanating out from that area. The extract is viewed by some as a marketable good, by others as a scientific or mystical phenomenon, and by yet others – the zealous "highland figures" – as a wellspring of darkness; an challenge that must be obliterated. The dilemma of where it comes from, what it stands for, and whether it should be eliminated or protected is escalating in importance.
Similar to the first series, Lyra's decisions, and her future, are shown to be inextricably linked with the fate of the world
In the previous volume, these storylines ran broadly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they come together. As in the original series, her actions and her fate are revealed to be deeply woven with the future of the world. Her personal mission to rejoin with her companion and recover her imagination becomes the key struggle in a larger conflict with an controlling regime which, as such authorities always have, is striving to suppress autonomy of thought, creativity and expression: all the inner, resistant ways in which people can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The novel begins with the discovery of a series of curious openings in the makeup of the planet's air: portals that look to open into alternate realities. An example of a window seems to be the origin of the much debated botanical substance. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its helm, labels these windows as a problem to the institution's doctrine and sets out to destroy them. As Lyra begins to shift from rigid reason and return to instinct, yet, her certainty that these sites must be defended – that their meaning and what they provide is in some way crucial – grows. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a poetic conflict between innocence and maturity is established.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
