Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that seems, now more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along new and troubling lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from governments, and accumulating in the chambers of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the control of crowds. "Something is at work, stealthily, gradually", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and durable are faltering and failing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Just what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that drives The Rose Field, which picks up where the previous book ended. This is, according to many, the author's concluding foray into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating world he first unveiled three decades past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose landscape maps on to that of the real world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the people look and think and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, beings in creature form; where the skies are filled with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but below, vehicles are caught and beverages is drunk, and mature scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the prequel, the origin story with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still distinctly the prickly and persistent main character of the previous installments, but more mature, melancholic, more careful, less certain. This restraint is intensified by her division from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to leave in pursuit of that innocent part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an trait which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with marvel and risk on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the religious ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of strict, bureaucratic evil – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. The antagonist – Lyra's uncle, who faults her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of president of the authority's governing body, and is intent on using his recently acquired power to extend the institution's rule. A key character, who saved infant Lyra to security along a overflowing river as an child in the prequel, is now an academic with a secondary role in espionage: he is sent to a key location to learn more about his aims. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and precious rose oil which appears somehow to be the source of a societal and economic disturbance emanating out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by some as a marketable good, by different parties as a research-based or esoteric phenomenon, and by further factions – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of malevolence; an insult that must be destroyed. The issue of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be removed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to the original trilogy, Lyra's deeds, and her fate, are demonstrated to be deeply linked with the future of the world
In its predecessor, these narratives ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they come together. Similar to His Dark Materials, her actions and her path are revealed to be inseparably entwined with the destiny of the realm. Her personal quest to reunite with her soul and recover her imagination becomes the key struggle in a broader war with an oppressive regime which, as such regimes often attempt, is attempting to quell autonomy of reason, creativity and culture: all the internal, defiant ways in which individuals can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The story opens with the discovery of a collection of strange fissures in the structure of the planet's sky: windows that look to lead to alternate realities. A particular portal appears to be the source of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its leadership, classifies these openings as a threat to the institution's beliefs and sets out to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to move from rigid logic and back to intuition, however, her conviction that these locations must be preserved – that their meaning and what they offer is in some way essential – grows. "The substance, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a poetic tussle between innocence and experience is set.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
