Things are collapsing in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a realm that seems, in this volume especially, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from governments, and pooling in the chambers of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the control of mobs. "Something is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and durable are deteriorating and giving way."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Just what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, according to many, the author's concluding foray into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling realm he first unveiled three decades past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose geography aligns with that of our world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the people look and reason and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, beings in creature form; where the heavens are populated with enchantresses and gryphons, but below, vehicles are caught and tea is drunk, and older professors carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which Pullman began the series, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the prickly and determined main character of the earlier books, but more mature, sadder, warier, more doubtful. This circumscription is heightened by her split from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to go off in pursuit of that childlike part of her which she may have forgotten (an trait which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with marvel and risk on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the religious governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of austere, procedural malice – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. The antagonist – Lyra's relative, who faults her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of leader of the church's ruling assembly, and is set on using his recently acquired influence to broaden the institution's control. A key character, who carried baby Lyra to refuge along a flooded river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a sideline in espionage: he is dispatched to a key location to find out more about Delamare's aims. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which appears mysteriously to be the origin of a societal and financial upheaval rippling out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by certain groups as a marketable product, by others as a empirical or esoteric wonder, and by others still – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a origin of evil; an affront that must be eradicated. The question of its origins, what it stands for, and whether it should be eliminated or preserved is escalating in importance.
As in the first series, Lyra's actions, and her fate, are shown to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the world
In the previous volume, these storylines ran broadly in tandem. In the conclusion, they merge. Like the first trilogy, the protagonist's movements and her path are revealed to be inextricably woven with the fate of the realm. Her personal journey to reunite with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the primary struggle in a wider conflict with an authoritarian regime which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to stifle independence of thought, creativity and expression: all the internal, defiant ways in which individuals can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The story begins with the discovery of a series of strange fissures in the structure of the world's atmosphere: gateways that appear to lead to alternate realities. One such window seems to be the point of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The authority, with its leader at its leadership, labels these portals as a challenge to the institution's beliefs and sets out to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from inflexible rationalism and back to intuition, however, her belief that these places must be protected – that what they stand for and what they provide is in some way essential – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a philosophical tussle between innocence and knowledge is established.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
