Tings are collapsing in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that appears, now more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from authorities, and pooling in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of conglomerates, the hands of crowds. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and solid are faltering and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Precisely what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that propels The Rose Field, which continues where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final excursion into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling universe he first revealed three decades past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose geography maps on to that of this world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the humans look and think and act like us, but are paired by daemons, souls in beast form; where the skies are populated with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, buses are ridden and tea is drunk, and middle-aged academics carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the prequel, the origin story with which the author began this trilogy, is now a adult: still distinctly the prickly and determined protagonist of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This circumscription is intensified by her separation from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to leave in pursuit of that childlike part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an quality which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and danger on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister embodiment of strict, procedural evil – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's family member, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the position of president of the authority's High Council, and is intent on using his fresh authority to extend the religion's control. Another protagonist, who rescued infant the heroine to refuge along a swollen Thames as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in spycraft: he is sent to a key location to learn more about Delamare's intentions. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and costly rose oil which manifests mysteriously to be the cause of a social and financial upheaval rippling out from the region. The substance is seen by some as a tradeable good, by different parties as a research-based or esoteric phenomenon, and by yet others – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a source of malevolence; an challenge that must be destroyed. The issue of its source, its meaning, and whether it should be eliminated or preserved is becoming urgent.
As in the first series, Lyra's deeds, and her future, are demonstrated to be deeply linked with the future of the realm
In its predecessor, these narratives ran broadly in parallel. In this final book, they converge. As in the first trilogy, her movements and her path are shown to be inseparably woven with the fate of the universe. Her private journey to rejoin with her companion and recover her vision becomes the key battleground in a broader war with an oppressive regime which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to quell independence of thought, originality and culture: all the inner, rebellious ways in which people can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The book starts with the finding of a collection of strange fissures in the makeup of the Earth's sky: gateways that seem to give on to different dimensions. One such opening seems to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The church, with Delamare at its helm, classifies these windows as a threat to the religion's doctrine and sets out to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from rigid logic and back to intuition, yet, her certainty that these sites must be protected – that their significance and what they provide is mysteriously crucial – increases. "The substance, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a philosophical struggle between purity and experience is established.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
