Tings are unraveling in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's masterful trilogies set in a world that manifests, now more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reassembling themselves along new and troubling lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from authorities, and pooling in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of conglomerates, the control of rioters. "An element is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and solid are faltering and failing."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's final venture into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting realm he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography aligns with that of this world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals look and think and act like us, but are joined by daemons, souls in animal form; where the heavens are populated with enchantresses and gryphons, but below, buses are ridden and beverages is drunk, and older academics carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a child in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which Pullman began the series, is now a mature individual: still clearly the spiky and persistent main character of the earlier books, but aged, more sorrowful, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is amplified by her split from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to depart in quest of that youthful part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a wandering voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and peril on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in motion, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's masterfully eerie embodiment of strict, bureaucratic wickedness – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. The antagonist – our protagonist's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of head of the church's governing body, and is intent on using his newfound power to expand the institution's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who saved young the heroine to safety along a overflowing river as an young boy in the first book, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in spycraft: he is assigned to a key location to discover more about the antagonist's aims. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and costly rose oil which appears somehow to be the cause of a societal and economic crisis spreading out from that area. The extract is viewed by various factions as a tradeable product, by alternate groups as a research-based or spiritual wonder, and by others still – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a origin of evil; an challenge that must be destroyed. The question of where it comes from, its significance, and if it should be destroyed or protected is escalating in importance.
Like the first series, Lyra's actions, and her future, are demonstrated to be deeply entwined with the future of the realm
In the previous volume, these plots ran broadly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they converge. As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's movements and her destiny are unveiled to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the realm. Her personal quest to reconnect with her soul and regain her vision becomes the central struggle in a broader war with an controlling government which, as such authorities typically do, is attempting to stifle independence of reason, innovation and culture: all the inner, rebellious ways in which individuals can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The book starts with the discovery of a collection of unusual cracks in the makeup of the world's air: windows that appear to lead to different dimensions. One such window seems to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The authority, with its leader at its head, labels these openings as a problem to the church's beliefs and sets out to destroy them. As the heroine begins to turn away from strict logic and revert to feeling, yet, her certainty that these places must be protected – that their significance and what they offer is in some way vital – grows. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we call it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a Blakean struggle between purity and maturity is set.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
