Tings are collapsing in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that appears, here more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or restructuring themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is draining from authorities, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the vaults of corporations, the hands of mobs. "Something is at work, stealthily, gradually", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and durable are faltering and giving way."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that animates The Rose Field, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, by all accounts, the author's final venture into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting world he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose landscape maps on to that of our world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the people appear and reason and behave like us, but are paired by external spirits, beings in creature form; where the skies are teeming with witches and legendary creatures, but below, buses are taken and drinks is sipped, and middle-aged professors carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old 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 distinctly the spiky and tenacious main character of the earlier books, but more mature, more sorrowful, warier, more doubtful. This circumscription is heightened by her separation from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
The daemon's resolve to go off in pursuit of that youthful part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an trait which he represents as her "creativity"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, meeting with amazement and risk on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's masterfully eerie incarnation of strict, bureaucratic evil – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's uncle, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the office of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is set on using his recently acquired authority to expand the religion's dominium. A key character, who rescued young the heroine to safety along a swollen Thames as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in spycraft: he is dispatched to Geneva to find out more about Delamare's aims. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and precious essential oil which seems mysteriously to be the origin of a social and economic upheaval spreading out from Central Asia. The substance is regarded by certain groups as a commercial product, by others as a scientific or esoteric phenomenon, and by yet others – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a source of malevolence; an challenge that must be eradicated. The question of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be destroyed or preserved is escalating in importance.
Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's deeds, and her future, are revealed to be inseparably linked with the future of the realm
In its predecessor, these plots ran broadly in parallel. In the conclusion, they converge. Like the first trilogy, the protagonist's actions and her path are unveiled to be inseparably entwined with the destiny of the world. Her personal mission to reunite with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the key struggle in a wider war with an authoritarian government which, as such authorities always have, is seeking to suppress freedom of thought, originality and art: all the personal, resistant ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The novel opens with the unveiling of a set of curious openings in the fabric of the Earth's atmosphere: gateways that appear to open into other worlds. An example of a opening appears to be the origin of the highly contested botanical substance. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its leadership, designates these windows as a threat to the religion's beliefs and sets out to destroy them. As Lyra begins to shift from rigid logic and return to intuition, nevertheless, her conviction that these sites must be protected – that their meaning and what they provide is mysteriously crucial – increases. "Dust, or the substance, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a philosophical conflict between naivety and maturity is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
