Things are falling apart in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a realm that manifests, in this volume especially, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from authorities, and accumulating in the offices of religious leaders, the coffers of conglomerates, the control of rioters. "Some force is at work, stealthily, gradually", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and durable are deteriorating and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that propels The Rose Field, which picks up where the previous book left off. This is, according to many, the author's last venture into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating world he first introduced in the distant past, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose geography corresponds to that of this world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and think and behave like us, but are paired by external spirits, souls in beast form; where the air are populated with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, buses are ridden and tea is sipped, and middle-aged scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which Pullman began the series, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the sharp and tenacious protagonist of the prior volumes, but older, melancholic, more careful, less sure. This restraint is heightened 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.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to go off in quest of that innocent part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an quality which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, meeting with wonder and danger on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in play, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the religious controlling power, and the author's masterfully eerie incarnation of rigid, bureaucratic wickedness – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – the heroine's uncle, who faults her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the role of leader of the Magisterium's governing body, and is intent on using his recently acquired power to extend the institution's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who saved young Lyra to security along a overflowing river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in spycraft: he is sent to a key location to find out more about his plans. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and costly rose oil which manifests somehow to be the source of a societal and economic upheaval emanating out from Central Asia. The substance is viewed by some as a commercial good, by alternate groups as a empirical or esoteric miracle, and by further factions – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of evil; an challenge that must be eradicated. The issue of where it comes from, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is escalating in importance.
Similar to the first series, Lyra's decisions, and her destiny, are shown to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the realm
In its predecessor, these plots ran mostly in side by side. In this final book, they converge. Similar to the original series, her actions and her fate are unveiled to be deeply woven with the fate of the realm. Her private quest to rejoin with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the primary battleground in a wider conflict with an oppressive government which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to stifle independence of thinking, creativity and art: all the inner, rebellious ways in which people can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The novel begins with the unveiling of a series of curious cracks in the structure of the world's atmosphere: windows that seem to open into alternate realities. One such window seems to be the point of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The church, with Delamare at its leadership, designates these windows as a challenge to the institution's orthodoxy and aims to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to move from inflexible logic and back to intuition, however, her conviction that these sites must be protected – that what they stand for and what they offer is in some way essential – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a poetic struggle between purity and maturity is set.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
