Tings are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a world that appears, in this volume especially, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from governments, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the grasp of crowds. "Something is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and solid are weakening and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Just what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that animates the concluding book, which picks up where its predecessor ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's last foray into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling universe he first revealed 30 years ago, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose geography maps on to that of our world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals look and think and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, essences in creature form; where the heavens are filled with witches and legendary creatures, but underneath, transports are caught and drinks is drunk, and middle-aged scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the prequel, the origin story with which Pullman began the series, is now a adult: still clearly the prickly and tenacious heroine of the prior volumes, but older, sadder, warier, less sure. This limitation is intensified by her split from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to depart in quest of that innocent part of her which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he represents as her "imagination"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which chronicled Lyra undertake a picaresque trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and peril on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the faith's governing authority, and the author's brilliantly sinister representation of austere, administrative wickedness – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. The antagonist – the heroine's family member, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the position of head of the Magisterium's High Council, and is determined on using his recently acquired authority to broaden the religion's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who carried baby the heroine to security along a flooded Thames as an young boy in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in espionage: he is assigned to the city to discover more about Delamare's plans. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and valuable essential oil which seems in some way to be the origin of a social and economic crisis spreading out from the region. The substance is seen by some as a tradeable good, by others as a scientific or spiritual wonder, and by others still – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a source of evil; an challenge that must be destroyed. The question of its source, its significance, and whether it should be removed or preserved is escalating in importance.
Like the original trilogy, the heroine's actions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran broadly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they converge. As in the first trilogy, Lyra's choices and her fate are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the realm. Her personal journey to rejoin with her soul and regain her vision becomes the primary battleground in a larger war with an oppressive regime which, as such authorities often attempt, is seeking to stifle independence of reason, originality and expression: all the inner, defiant ways in which individuals can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The novel opens with the unveiling of a series of strange fissures in the makeup of the world's atmosphere: windows that appear to give on to other worlds. One such window appears to be the origin of the highly contested botanical substance. The authority, with the antagonist at its leadership, classifies these windows as a threat to the religion's orthodoxy and sets out to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to move from inflexible logic and revert to instinct, yet, her belief that these places must be preserved – that what they stand for and what they provide is mysteriously crucial – increases. "The substance, or the extract, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a philosophical conflict between purity and knowledge is set.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
