Things are unraveling in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's masterful trilogies set in a universe that appears, in this volume especially, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or restructuring themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from governments, and accumulating in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of business empires, the hands of crowds. "An element is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says trader a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and durable are faltering and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Just what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that drives this final volume, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, reportedly, Pullman's last venture into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating realm he first unveiled in the distant past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose geography maps on to that of this world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans look and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, souls in creature form; where the air are populated with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, buses are ridden and tea is consumed, and mature scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the spiky and determined protagonist of the prior volumes, but older, melancholic, more careful, less certain. This restraint is amplified by her separation from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to depart in quest of that innocent part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a wandering journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with wonder and risk on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the religious controlling power, and the author's brilliantly sinister incarnation of rigid, procedural malice – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. The antagonist – the heroine's family member, who blames her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the position of head of the church's ruling assembly, and is set on using his recently acquired influence to extend the church's dominium. Another protagonist, who rescued infant Lyra to refuge along a flooded Thames as an young boy in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in espionage: he is sent to the city to discover more about Delamare's aims. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and valuable essential oil which appears in some way to be the origin of a social and financial upheaval spreading out from the region. The extract is seen by certain groups as a tradeable commodity, by alternate groups as a research-based or esoteric phenomenon, and by yet others – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of evil; an affront that must be destroyed. The issue of its source, its meaning, and whether it should be eliminated or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like the original trilogy, Lyra's deeds, and her future, are shown to be inseparably entwined with the future of the realm
In its predecessor, these storylines ran broadly in parallel. In the conclusion, they come together. Like His Dark Materials, the protagonist's choices and her fate are revealed to be deeply woven with the future of the world. Her personal journey to reconnect with her soul and rediscover her vision becomes the central conflict in a broader battle with an oppressive system which, as these systems always have, is striving to suppress autonomy of reason, originality and expression: all the inner, resistant ways in which people can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The novel opens with the discovery of a series of curious fissures in the makeup of the planet's atmosphere: portals that appear to give on to alternate realities. One such opening manifests to be the point of the highly contested rose oil. The authority, with Delamare at its leadership, classifies these portals as a threat to the institution's orthodoxy and aims to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from strict rationalism and revert to intuition, yet, her conviction that these places must be preserved – that their meaning and what they provide is in some way vital – increases. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a philosophical tussle between purity and experience is established.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
