Tings are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that appears, now more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Organizations are failing, or restructuring themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from authorities, and accumulating in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the control of rioters. "Something is at work, silently, gradually", says businessman a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and strong are faltering and failing."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that propels The Rose Field, which continues where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's concluding venture into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating world he first introduced three decades past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography corresponds to that of our world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the individuals look and think and behave like us, but are paired by animal souls, essences in animal form; where the air are filled with witches and gryphons, but underneath, transports are ridden and tea is consumed, and older professors carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a child in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still distinctly the prickly and persistent protagonist of the prior volumes, but more mature, melancholic, more careful, less sure. This restraint is intensified by her division from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
The daemon's resolve to depart in quest of that childlike part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an quality which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous trek across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and peril on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in play, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the religious controlling power, and the author's deliciously chilling embodiment of austere, procedural wickedness – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who faults her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the position of leader of the authority's governing body, and is set on using his newfound power to broaden the institution's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who carried infant Lyra to safety along a swollen Thames as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is dispatched to a key location to learn more about Delamare's aims. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and costly essential oil which appears in some way to be the origin of a societal and financial disturbance rippling out from Central Asia. The extract is viewed by certain groups as a marketable commodity, by different parties as a research-based or spiritual wonder, and by others still – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an affront that must be destroyed. The question of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be removed or preserved is escalating in importance.
As in His Dark Materials, the heroine's decisions, and her destiny, are shown to be inseparably entwined with the fate of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran mostly in side by side. In the conclusion, they merge. Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's choices and her destiny are shown to be deeply linked with the destiny of the realm. Her individual journey to rejoin with her companion and regain her vision becomes the central battleground in a broader conflict with an oppressive system which, as these systems often attempt, is striving to suppress independence of thought, innovation and culture: all the internal, defiant ways in which people can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The story opens with the finding of a series of curious openings in the structure of the Earth's air: gateways that seem to open into different dimensions. A particular portal seems to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The church, with the antagonist at its leadership, labels these windows as a threat to the religion's orthodoxy and aims to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to move from strict logic and revert to instinct, however, her certainty that these places must be preserved – that their meaning and their value is somehow essential – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a philosophical struggle between naivety and maturity is set.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
