Things are unraveling in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a world that manifests, here more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reassembling themselves along new and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is draining from governments, and accumulating in the halls of religious leaders, the vaults of business empires, the control of crowds. "An element is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says trader a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and strong are deteriorating and giving way."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Just what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that propels the concluding book, which picks up where its predecessor ended. This is, by all accounts, the author's concluding venture into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting universe he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and reason and behave like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, souls in beast form; where the heavens are filled with witches and mythical beasts, but below, transports are ridden and beverages is drunk, and older professors carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the prequel, the introductory book with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the spiky and determined main character of the previous installments, but aged, melancholic, more cautious, less certain. This circumscription is amplified by her split from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to leave in search of that childlike part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an quality which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with wonder and peril on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the church's controlling power, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of austere, procedural malice – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – our protagonist's uncle, who faults her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the office of head of the Magisterium's governing body, and is determined on using his fresh influence to expand the institution's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued young the heroine to security along a overflowing Thames as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an academic with a secondary role in espionage: he is sent to a key location to learn more about the antagonist's plans. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and costly rose oil which manifests mysteriously to be the source of a societal and economic crisis rippling out from Central Asia. The oil is regarded by various factions as a tradeable good, by others as a empirical or mystical miracle, and by others still – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of darkness; an affront that must be destroyed. The issue of its origins, its significance, and if it should be eliminated or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like His Dark Materials, our protagonist's actions, and her future, are shown to be inseparably connected with the destiny of the realm
In the previous volume, these narratives ran mostly in parallel. In this final book, they merge. As in His Dark Materials, the protagonist's choices and her path are revealed to be inseparably linked with the fate of the universe. Her personal mission to rejoin with her companion and recover her vision becomes the central battleground in a broader battle with an authoritarian regime which, as these systems typically do, is attempting to stifle autonomy of thought, creativity and expression: all the inner, rebellious ways in which people can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The novel begins with the unveiling of a collection of strange fissures in the structure of the world's air: windows that seem to open into other worlds. One such portal manifests to be the point of the much debated rose oil. The authority, with the antagonist at its helm, designates these openings as a challenge to the religion's orthodoxy and endeavors to destroy them. As Lyra begins to move from strict reason and back to instinct, nevertheless, her belief that these locations must be preserved – that their meaning and their value is somehow vital – strengthens. "Dust, or the substance, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we call it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a philosophical tussle between naivety and experience is established.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
