Things are unraveling in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a realm that manifests, here more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from states, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the coffers of business empires, the hands of rioters. "Some force is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were secure and solid are weakening and failing."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that propels The Rose Field, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final excursion into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating universe he first introduced in the distant past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose terrain aligns with that of our world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the people look and reason and behave like us, but are paired by daemons, souls in animal form; where the heavens are populated with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but below, buses are ridden and tea is consumed, and middle-aged professors carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still recognisably the prickly and determined main character of the earlier books, but more mature, more sorrowful, more cautious, less certain. This circumscription is heightened by her separation from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to go off in search of that youthful part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an trait which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and risk on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in motion, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the religious ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of austere, bureaucratic evil – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the office of head of the authority's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his newfound power to extend the institution's control. Another protagonist, who carried baby Lyra to refuge along a swollen Thames as an young boy in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a sideline in spycraft: he is sent to the city to find out more about the antagonist's intentions. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and precious rose oil which manifests mysteriously to be the source of a social and economic disturbance emanating out from the region. The oil is viewed by some as a tradeable good, by different parties as a scientific or esoteric wonder, and by others still – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of evil; an affront that must be obliterated. The dilemma of where it comes from, what it stands for, and if it should be destroyed or preserved is becoming urgent.
Like His Dark Materials, the heroine's actions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inseparably entwined with the destiny of the world
In its predecessor, these plots ran broadly in side by side. In the conclusion, they merge. Similar to the first trilogy, Lyra's movements and her path are revealed to be deeply woven with the future of the realm. Her individual quest to rejoin with her daemon and rediscover her vision becomes the key conflict in a broader conflict with an authoritarian government which, as such authorities always have, is attempting to stifle independence of reason, innovation and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which humans can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The story starts with the unveiling of a set of strange fissures in the fabric of the planet's atmosphere: portals that appear to give on to alternate realities. One such opening appears to be the origin of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The church, with Delamare at its helm, designates these openings as a problem to the institution's doctrine and sets out to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from strict rationalism and return to instinct, however, her certainty that these locations must be preserved – that what they stand for and what they offer is in some way vital – increases. "Dust, or the substance, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or whatever we label it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a philosophical conflict between naivety and experience is set.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
