Things are collapsing in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that seems, here more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reassembling themselves along new and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from governments, and accumulating in the chambers of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the grasp of crowds. "An element is at work, silently, very subtly", says trader a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and solid are deteriorating and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Just what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that propels the concluding book, which resumes where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final venture into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating world he first unveiled three decades past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose geography maps on to that of this world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the humans look and think and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, souls in creature form; where the heavens are teeming with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but below, transports are ridden and beverages is drunk, and middle-aged scholars carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still recognisably the sharp and tenacious heroine of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, more careful, less certain. This restraint is heightened by her split from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to go off in search of that youthful part of her which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a wandering journey across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with amazement and danger on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the church's governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of strict, procedural wickedness – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's uncle, who blames her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the office of president of the church's ruling assembly, and is set on using his newfound influence to extend the institution's control. Another protagonist, who carried infant the heroine to security along a overflowing river as an child in the first book, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is assigned to Geneva to discover more about Delamare's plans. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and precious rose oil which seems in some way to be the source of a social and economic crisis rippling out from that area. The extract is seen by various factions as a marketable good, by others as a scientific or spiritual wonder, and by further factions – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of darkness; an affront that must be obliterated. The question of its origins, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or protected is escalating in importance.
As in His Dark Materials, our protagonist's decisions, and her fate, are revealed to be inseparably linked with the future of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran mostly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they converge. Similar to the original series, her movements and her fate are unveiled to be deeply linked with the fate of the universe. Her individual quest to reunite with her daemon and recover her imagination becomes the key conflict in a larger war with an oppressive regime which, as such authorities always have, is striving to stifle freedom of thinking, originality and art: all the personal, resistant ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The book begins with the unveiling of a collection of curious cracks in the structure of the world's sky: gateways that seem to give on to other worlds. One such window appears to be the origin of the highly contested rose oil. The church, with its leader at its helm, designates these windows as a threat to the institution's doctrine and aims to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to move from inflexible rationalism and revert to instinct, yet, her belief that these locations must be preserved – that their significance and their value is mysteriously crucial – grows. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a philosophical tussle between innocence and knowledge is established.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
