Things are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that manifests, here more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or restructuring themselves along novel and troubling lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from states, and gathering in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the control of rioters. "An element is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says merchant a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and strong are weakening and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Just what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that propels The Rose Field, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's concluding excursion into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling world he first revealed 30 years ago, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose landscape maps on to that of the real world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by daemons, souls in beast form; where the heavens are populated with witches and gryphons, but below, transports are caught and beverages is sipped, and mature professors carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still recognisably the spiky and tenacious protagonist of the earlier books, but more mature, melancholic, more cautious, less certain. This limitation is heightened by her division from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to depart in search of that innocent part of her which she appears to have shed (an trait which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with marvel and risk on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in play, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling embodiment of austere, administrative evil – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's family member, who faults her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of leader of the church's High Council, and is intent on using his newfound authority to broaden the church's dominium. A key character, who carried infant Lyra to refuge along a swollen river as an young boy in the first book, is now an academic with a sideline in espionage: he is assigned to Geneva to discover more about the antagonist's aims. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and costly rose oil which seems in some way to be the origin of a social and financial disturbance rippling out from Central Asia. The oil is seen by various factions as a marketable product, by different parties as a research-based or mystical miracle, and by further factions – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of darkness; an insult that must be obliterated. The issue of its origins, its significance, and if it should be eliminated or protected is becoming urgent.
As in the original trilogy, our protagonist's decisions, and her future, are shown to be inseparably connected with the fate of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran mostly in tandem. In this final book, they converge. Like the original series, her movements and her fate are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the future of the realm. Her personal mission to rejoin with her daemon and rediscover her vision becomes the key battleground in a wider war with an authoritarian regime which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to stifle independence of thinking, innovation and art: all the personal, resistant ways in which individuals can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The book starts with the unveiling of a series of curious fissures in the fabric of the world's atmosphere: portals that look to give on to other worlds. An example of a opening manifests to be the point of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The authority, with its leader at its leadership, designates these openings as a threat to the church's beliefs and sets out to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to move from strict rationalism and back to feeling, yet, her belief that these places must be defended – that what they stand for and what they offer is in some way vital – grows. "Dust, or the extract, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a philosophical conflict between naivety and maturity is established.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
