Tings are unraveling in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a world that manifests, now more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from governments, and gathering in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of business empires, the hands of rioters. "Something is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says trader a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an city cafe. "Things we thought were stable and strong are faltering and failing."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that animates The Rose Field, which picks up where the previous book concluded. This is, by all accounts, the author's concluding venture into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating world he first revealed in the distant past, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the people appear and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, essences in beast form; where the skies are filled with witches and legendary creatures, but below, buses are ridden and drinks is drunk, and older professors carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a child in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the prequel, the origin story with which the author began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the spiky and persistent main character of the prior volumes, but aged, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is amplified by her division from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to leave in pursuit of that innocent part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an trait which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a adventurous trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, meeting with amazement and danger on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in motion, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the church's governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of austere, procedural evil – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of leader of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is set on using his newfound authority to broaden the church's control. Another protagonist, who carried baby Lyra to security along a flooded river as an child in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in spycraft: he is dispatched to a key location to learn more about his intentions. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and valuable botanical extract which appears mysteriously to be the origin of a societal and economic upheaval emanating out from the region. The substance is viewed by some as a tradeable good, by different parties as a empirical or spiritual miracle, and by yet others – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a origin of malevolence; an affront that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its source, what it stands for, and whether it should be eliminated or preserved is escalating in importance.
Similar to the first series, the heroine's deeds, and her fate, are revealed to be inseparably connected with the future of the realm
In the previous volume, these narratives ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they merge. As in His Dark Materials, the protagonist's movements and her destiny are revealed to be inseparably entwined with the future of the realm. Her personal quest to reunite with her companion and rediscover her vision becomes the central struggle in a larger war with an oppressive regime which, as such regimes typically do, is attempting to stifle independence of reason, creativity and culture: all the inner, defiant ways in which individuals can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The book starts with the discovery of a series of curious openings in the fabric of the planet's atmosphere: windows that appear to give on to alternate realities. An example of a portal appears to be the source of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The authority, with its leader at its leadership, classifies these openings as a problem to the church's doctrine and aims to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to move from inflexible reason and return to feeling, nevertheless, her belief that these sites must be preserved – that their meaning and what they offer is mysteriously crucial – increases. "The substance, or the extract, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a Blakean conflict between purity and maturity is established.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
