Tings are collapsing in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's grand trilogies set in a realm that seems, in this volume especially, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or restructuring themselves along new and troubling lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is draining from states, and accumulating in the offices of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the grasp of mobs. "Something is at work, very quietly, gradually", says businessman a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and strong are deteriorating and giving way."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that animates the concluding book, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, according to many, the author's final excursion into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling realm he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose geography maps on to that of this world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, beings in beast form; where the skies are filled with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but below, buses are taken and beverages is drunk, and middle-aged scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the prickly and determined main character of the previous installments, but older, melancholic, more careful, less sure. This limitation is intensified by her split from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to go off in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a wandering journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with amazement and peril on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in play, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the church's ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister embodiment of strict, procedural malice – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's uncle, who blames her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the office of head of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his newfound authority to extend the institution's rule. A key character, who saved baby the heroine to security along a swollen Thames as an young boy in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in spycraft: he is assigned to the city to find out more about his aims. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and costly essential oil which manifests mysteriously to be the source of a societal and financial upheaval emanating out from Central Asia. The oil is regarded by some as a tradeable good, by others as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by further factions – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an challenge that must be obliterated. The issue of its source, its meaning, and if it should be removed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Like His Dark Materials, the heroine's decisions, and her fate, are revealed to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the universe
In its predecessor, these narratives ran mostly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they converge. Similar to the original series, her actions and her fate are revealed to be inseparably linked with the future of the world. Her personal quest to rejoin with her companion and rediscover her vision becomes the central conflict in a wider battle with an controlling regime which, as these systems typically do, is attempting to suppress freedom of thinking, innovation and expression: all the personal, defiant ways in which people can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The book opens with the discovery of a collection of unusual openings in the makeup of the Earth's sky: portals that seem to open into different dimensions. An example of a portal manifests to be the source of the much debated botanical substance. The Magisterium, with its leader at its leadership, designates these openings as a problem to the institution's doctrine and endeavors to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to shift from rigid reason and return to intuition, however, her certainty that these sites must be protected – that what they stand for and their value is somehow vital – grows. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a philosophical tussle between naivety and experience is set.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
