Tings are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that appears, here more than ever, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from authorities, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the grasp of rioters. "Some force is at work, stealthily, gradually", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an city cafe. "Things we thought were secure and strong are faltering and failing."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Just what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that propels The Rose Field, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding venture into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling universe he first revealed in the distant past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and think and behave like us, but are paired by daemons, essences in creature form; where the air are filled with witches and mythical beasts, but below, transports are taken and tea is drunk, and middle-aged scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still clearly the prickly and tenacious main character of the prior volumes, but aged, more sorrowful, more cautious, less sure. This limitation is intensified by her division from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
The daemon's resolve to go off in pursuit of that innocent part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with amazement and danger on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in motion, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the church's controlling power, and the author's deliciously chilling embodiment of strict, administrative malice – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's relative, who faults her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the office of head of the Magisterium's High Council, and is set on using his recently acquired power to extend the church's dominium. A key character, who saved baby Lyra to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an young boy in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in spycraft: he is sent to a key location to learn more about Delamare's plans. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and precious essential oil which seems in some way to be the cause of a societal and economic upheaval rippling out from that area. The extract is seen by various factions as a commercial good, by alternate groups as a scientific or esoteric phenomenon, and by yet others – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a source of malevolence; an insult that must be obliterated. The issue of its source, its meaning, and whether it should be eliminated or preserved is escalating in importance.
Like the original trilogy, our protagonist's decisions, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the universe
In the previous volume, these storylines ran mostly in parallel. In the conclusion, they converge. Like the original series, her choices and her path are shown to be deeply entwined with the fate of the realm. Her personal quest to reunite with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the key battleground in a larger war with an oppressive government which, as such authorities always have, is attempting to quell independence of thought, innovation and culture: all the internal, defiant ways in which humans can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The book starts with the unveiling of a set of curious fissures in the makeup of the Earth's sky: windows that seem to open into other worlds. A particular opening manifests to be the point of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The authority, with the antagonist at its helm, labels these portals as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and aims to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from inflexible reason and return to feeling, nevertheless, her belief that these sites must be defended – that what they stand for and what they provide is somehow vital – increases. "The substance, or rose oil, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we label it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a Blakean conflict between purity and maturity is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
