Things are unraveling in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that appears, here more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along new and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is draining from authorities, and gathering in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the control of mobs. "Some force is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and solid are faltering and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Precisely what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that propels this final volume, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final foray into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating world he first unveiled three decades past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a world whose landscape maps on to that of the real world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and behave like us, but are joined by daemons, beings in beast form; where the skies are teeming with witches and legendary creatures, but below, vehicles are ridden and tea is consumed, and mature scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a child in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still distinctly the sharp and determined heroine of the earlier books, but older, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her split from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to depart in search of that innocent part of her which she may have forgotten (an trait which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque trek across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with marvel and risk on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in play, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's masterfully eerie embodiment of austere, procedural evil – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who blames her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the role of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his newfound authority to extend the church's control. Malcolm Polstead, who carried infant the heroine to safety along a flooded river as an young boy in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in espionage: he is assigned to the city to learn more about Delamare's plans. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and valuable essential oil which seems in some way to be the cause of a social and financial upheaval rippling out from Central Asia. The substance is regarded by certain groups as a marketable product, by alternate groups as a empirical or spiritual phenomenon, and by yet others – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of darkness; an challenge that must be destroyed. The question of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like the first series, our protagonist's decisions, and her future, are revealed to be deeply connected with the fate of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran mostly in side by side. In this final book, they converge. Similar to the first trilogy, Lyra's choices and her path are shown to be inseparably linked with the future of the universe. Her personal mission to reunite with her companion and recover her creativity becomes the primary conflict in a wider battle with an authoritarian regime which, as such regimes typically do, is attempting to stifle independence of thought, creativity and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which humans can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The story starts with the discovery of a series of strange cracks in the structure of the planet's air: gateways that seem to lead to other worlds. A particular opening appears to be the point of the highly contested botanical substance. The church, with the antagonist at its leadership, labels these openings as a challenge to the church's doctrine and sets out to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to shift from inflexible reason and return to feeling, however, her certainty that these sites must be protected – that their significance and what they provide is somehow crucial – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or whatever we label it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a poetic struggle between innocence and maturity is established.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
