Things are collapsing in the final volume 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 charged and slanted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reassembling themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from authorities, and accumulating in the chambers of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the hands of crowds. "An element is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says merchant a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Things we thought were firm and durable are deteriorating and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that drives this final volume, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's last excursion into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling world he first unveiled three decades past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose landscape maps on to that of this world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the people appear and reason and behave like us, but are joined by external spirits, essences in beast form; where the air are teeming with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but below, transports are taken and tea is drunk, and mature professors carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still clearly the spiky and tenacious main character of the previous installments, but more mature, melancholic, more cautious, less certain. This restraint is heightened by her division from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to depart in search of that innocent part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an quality which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a adventurous journey across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with wonder and danger on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the religious ruling body, and the author's masterfully eerie representation of strict, procedural evil – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's family member, who faults her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the position of leader of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is set on using his recently acquired authority to broaden the religion's rule. Another protagonist, who carried young Lyra to safety along a swollen river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a sideline in intelligence work: he is dispatched to Geneva to find out more about the antagonist's intentions. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and precious essential oil which appears somehow to be the cause of a societal and economic disturbance rippling out from that area. The substance is viewed by some as a marketable commodity, by alternate groups as a empirical or esoteric phenomenon, and by further factions – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a origin of malevolence; an affront that must be destroyed. The issue of its source, its significance, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is coming rapidly to the fore.
As in the original trilogy, the heroine's actions, and her future, are demonstrated to be deeply linked with the future of the world
In its predecessor, these narratives ran largely in parallel. In the conclusion, they come together. As in the original series, the protagonist's choices and her path are unveiled to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the realm. Her individual journey to rejoin with her companion and regain her vision becomes the key battleground in a wider battle with an oppressive system which, as such regimes typically do, is attempting to suppress autonomy of thinking, innovation and culture: all the personal, rebellious ways in which humans can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The novel opens with the discovery of a set of curious fissures in the fabric of the planet's atmosphere: windows that appear to give on to different dimensions. An example of a opening appears to be the source of the highly contested rose oil. The Magisterium, with its leader at its leadership, classifies these windows as a threat to the church's orthodoxy and sets out to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to move from inflexible logic and return to feeling, yet, her conviction that these sites must be preserved – that what they stand for and their value is somehow essential – grows. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a Blakean conflict between innocence and knowledge is established.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
