Tings are falling apart in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a world that manifests, here more than ever, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from governments, and gathering in the offices of theocrats, the vaults of corporations, the hands of mobs. "Some force is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Things we thought were stable and durable are weakening and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that drives The Rose Field, which picks up where its predecessor left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's concluding venture into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling universe he first introduced three decades past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography maps on to that of this world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and act like us, but are joined by animal souls, souls in creature form; where the skies are teeming with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, transports are caught and drinks is consumed, and middle-aged academics carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still clearly the prickly and tenacious main character of the previous installments, but aged, melancholic, warier, more doubtful. This restraint is intensified by her separation from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to depart in quest of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a wandering journey across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and danger on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in play, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the church's ruling body, and the author's masterfully eerie incarnation of strict, procedural wickedness – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's uncle, who faults her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the position of head of the church's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his fresh power to broaden the religion's dominium. Another protagonist, who carried infant Lyra to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an child in the first book, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is assigned to a key location to learn more about his plans. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and costly rose oil which manifests in some way to be the cause of a societal and financial crisis spreading out from that area. The oil is regarded by various factions as a marketable good, by others as a scientific or spiritual wonder, and by others still – the extremist "highland figures" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an challenge that must be destroyed. The dilemma of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be removed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Similar to His Dark Materials, the heroine's deeds, and her future, are revealed to be inextricably connected with the future of the universe
In its predecessor, these plots ran broadly in tandem. In the conclusion, they converge. Similar to the first trilogy, Lyra's actions and her destiny are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the future of the realm. Her personal quest to reunite with her companion and rediscover her vision becomes the primary struggle in a wider conflict with an controlling system which, as these systems often attempt, is striving to suppress freedom of thought, originality and culture: all the personal, resistant ways in which humans can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The book starts with the finding of a set of curious cracks in the fabric of the planet's sky: windows that seem to lead to alternate realities. An example of a opening appears to be the point of the much debated mystical extract. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its helm, classifies these windows as a problem to the church's beliefs and sets out to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to move from rigid reason and return to instinct, however, her conviction that these sites must be defended – that their significance and what they offer is mysteriously vital – grows. "Dust, or rose oil, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a poetic conflict between purity and maturity is set.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
