Things are falling apart in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that seems, in this volume especially, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is draining from authorities, and pooling in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of business empires, the hands of crowds. "Something is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and solid are faltering and failing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Exactly what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where its predecessor concluded. This is, according to many, the author's last excursion into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting realm he first unveiled three decades past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography maps on to that of this world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals look and think and behave like us, but are joined by external spirits, beings in animal form; where the skies are filled with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but below, buses are caught and beverages is drunk, and mature academics carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the prequel, the origin story with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still clearly the spiky and determined main character of the previous installments, but older, sadder, more cautious, less sure. This restraint is amplified by her division from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to go off in pursuit of that childlike part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and risk on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in play, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the church's controlling power, and the author's brilliantly sinister incarnation of rigid, administrative malice – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. The antagonist – the heroine's uncle, who blames her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the role of president of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is set on using his recently acquired authority to extend the institution's rule. Another protagonist, who rescued young the heroine to security along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a sideline in spycraft: he is assigned to Geneva to learn more about the antagonist's plans. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and precious rose oil which seems mysteriously to be the cause of a social and economic crisis emanating out from Central Asia. The oil is regarded by certain groups as a commercial commodity, by others as a empirical or mystical miracle, and by yet others – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of darkness; an insult that must be destroyed. The dilemma of its source, what it stands for, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like His Dark Materials, our protagonist's deeds, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran mostly in parallel. In the conclusion, they come together. Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions and her destiny are revealed to be inextricably woven with the destiny of the universe. Her private quest to reconnect with her soul and recover her creativity becomes the primary struggle in a wider war with an oppressive government which, as these systems always have, is seeking to stifle independence of thought, creativity and culture: all the inner, defiant ways in which people can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The book starts with the finding of a set of unusual openings in the makeup of the planet's air: portals that look to give on to other worlds. One such window seems to be the origin of the much debated botanical substance. The Magisterium, with its leader at its head, designates these windows as a threat to the institution's beliefs and sets out to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to move from inflexible reason and back to feeling, however, her certainty that these locations must be protected – that their significance and what they offer is mysteriously vital – grows. "Dust, or the substance, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or whatever we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a poetic struggle between purity and experience is established.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
