Tings are falling apart in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from states, and gathering in the offices of religious leaders, the vaults of conglomerates, the grasp of rioters. "Some force is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and durable are weakening and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Just what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that propels The Rose Field, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's final excursion into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating universe he first revealed in the distant past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose terrain maps on to that of this world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the people appear and reason and act like us, but are paired by daemons, souls in creature form; where the heavens are populated with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, vehicles are ridden and beverages is sipped, and mature scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a child in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the first volume, the origin story with which the author began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the prickly and determined main character of the previous installments, but older, sadder, more cautious, less sure. This restraint is amplified by her separation from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to go off in pursuit of that childlike part of the heroine 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 Lyra undertake a wandering voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with wonder and risk on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the faith's controlling power, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister representation of rigid, administrative evil – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's family member, who blames her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the position of president of the authority's governing body, and is set on using his fresh authority to broaden the institution's control. Malcolm Polstead, who saved baby the heroine to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an child in the first book, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in spycraft: he is sent to a key location to find out more about his plans. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and costly rose oil which appears mysteriously to be the source of a societal and economic upheaval rippling out from that area. The oil is seen by various factions as a tradeable commodity, by others as a empirical or spiritual miracle, and by yet others – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of evil; an affront that must be obliterated. The issue of its origins, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's deeds, and her future, are revealed to be inseparably connected with the future of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran mostly in tandem. In the conclusion, they merge. Similar to His Dark Materials, her movements and her fate are unveiled to be deeply entwined with the future of the universe. Her personal quest to reunite with her soul and recover her creativity becomes the primary battleground in a larger conflict with an oppressive government which, as such regimes often attempt, is seeking to suppress independence of thinking, originality and art: all the personal, rebellious ways in which people can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The story starts with the finding of a series of unusual cracks in the makeup of the planet's sky: windows that seem to lead to different dimensions. One such window appears to be the origin of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The church, with the antagonist at its helm, labels these portals as a challenge to the church's doctrine and sets out to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to move from inflexible rationalism and return to feeling, yet, her belief that these locations must be defended – that their significance and what they provide is somehow crucial – increases. "Dust, or the extract, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a philosophical tussle between naivety and experience is set.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
