Tings are unraveling in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a world that seems, in this volume especially, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along new and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from governments, and accumulating in the offices of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the grasp of crowds. "Something is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and durable are weakening and giving way."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that animates The Rose Field, which picks up where its predecessor concluded. This is, by all accounts, the author's concluding venture into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting realm he first unveiled in the distant past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose landscape aligns with 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, souls in creature form; where the air are teeming with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, vehicles are caught and drinks is drunk, and mature professors carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a adult: still recognisably the prickly and tenacious heroine of the prior volumes, but older, more sorrowful, warier, more doubtful. This circumscription is amplified by her split from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to go off in search of that youthful part of her which she seems to have lost (an trait which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous journey across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with amazement and peril on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in motion, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the church's governing authority, and the author's brilliantly sinister representation of strict, procedural evil – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's family member, who faults her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the position of head of the church's governing body, and is set on using his recently acquired power to extend the church's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who carried infant the heroine to safety along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an academic with a additional duty in spycraft: he is assigned to a key location to learn more about the antagonist's plans. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and precious essential oil which appears in some way to be the source of a societal and financial crisis rippling out from the region. The extract is regarded by some as a tradeable product, by different parties as a research-based or esoteric miracle, and by further factions – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a source of evil; an affront that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be eliminated or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
As in the first series, Lyra's decisions, and her fate, are revealed to be inextricably linked with the future of the realm
In its predecessor, these plots ran broadly in parallel. In this final book, they merge. As in the original series, Lyra's movements and her destiny are shown to be inextricably entwined with the future of the world. Her private quest to reconnect with her soul and regain her creativity becomes the central battleground in a wider war with an authoritarian regime which, as such authorities typically do, is striving to stifle independence of thought, originality and culture: all the inner, resistant ways in which individuals can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The novel starts with the unveiling of a collection of strange fissures in the structure of the world's sky: gateways that seem to lead to other worlds. An example of a portal seems to be the source of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The authority, with the antagonist at its head, designates these portals as a problem to the church's orthodoxy and aims to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to shift from strict logic and revert to intuition, yet, her belief that these sites must be defended – that their meaning and what they offer is in some way crucial – strengthens. "Dust, or the extract, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a Blakean tussle between innocence and maturity is set.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
