Tings are falling apart in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a realm that appears, now more than ever, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or restructuring themselves along new and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from governments, and accumulating in the chambers of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the control of rioters. "An element is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and strong are weakening and giving way."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, according to many, the author's last excursion into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating realm he first revealed 30 years ago, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose landscape aligns with that of our world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, beings in animal form; where the skies are filled with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, vehicles are ridden and drinks is consumed, and middle-aged academics carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the prequel, the origin story with which Pullman began the series, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the prickly and determined main character of the prior volumes, but aged, more sorrowful, more cautious, less certain. This restraint is heightened by her separation from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to depart in pursuit of that youthful part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an quality which he represents as her "imagination"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a adventurous journey across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and peril on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister representation of strict, administrative wickedness – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. The antagonist – our protagonist's family member, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the role of president of the church's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his recently acquired influence to extend the institution's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who saved baby Lyra to security along a flooded river as an child in the prequel, is now an academic with a secondary role in spycraft: he is assigned to a key location to find out more about the antagonist's aims. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and precious essential oil which seems mysteriously to be the source of a social and financial upheaval rippling out from the region. The substance is viewed by various factions as a marketable product, by alternate groups as a scientific or esoteric miracle, and by yet others – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a source of malevolence; an insult that must be eradicated. The issue of where it comes from, its significance, and if it should be removed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's decisions, and her future, are demonstrated to be inextricably entwined with the future of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran mostly in parallel. In this final book, they come together. As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's movements and her path are revealed to be inseparably woven with the future of the realm. Her private quest to rejoin with her soul and regain her vision becomes the key battleground in a wider battle with an controlling system which, as these systems always have, is seeking to stifle freedom of thought, creativity and art: all the inner, defiant ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The book starts with the finding of a collection of curious fissures in the fabric of the world's air: portals that look to open into other worlds. An example of a window appears to be the source of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The church, with Delamare at its helm, designates these portals as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and aims to destroy them. As the heroine begins to turn away from strict reason and revert to feeling, yet, her conviction that these places must be protected – that their significance and their value is somehow vital – increases. "Dust, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a Blakean tussle between purity and maturity is established.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
