Things are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that appears, in this volume especially, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from states, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the control of crowds. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and strong are weakening and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Exactly what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that drives The Rose Field, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's final foray into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting realm he first revealed 30 years ago, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose terrain maps on to that of this world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and think and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, beings in animal form; where the skies are teeming with witches and legendary creatures, but below, transports are ridden and drinks is sipped, and mature professors carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a child in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still distinctly the sharp and persistent protagonist of the prior volumes, but aged, more sorrowful, more careful, less certain. This limitation is amplified by her division from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to leave in search of that innocent part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an quality which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with amazement and risk on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the religious governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister embodiment of austere, administrative evil – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – our protagonist's uncle, who blames her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the office of head of the church's governing body, and is intent on using his recently acquired power to extend the church's rule. A key character, who carried young the heroine to security along a swollen river as an young boy in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in spycraft: he is sent to Geneva to learn more about Delamare's intentions. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and costly rose oil which appears mysteriously to be the source of a societal and economic disturbance emanating out from Central Asia. The oil is viewed by various factions as a marketable commodity, by different parties as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by others still – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of evil; an insult that must be eradicated. The question of its origins, what it stands for, and if it should be destroyed or preserved is escalating in importance.
Like the first series, the heroine's actions, and her future, are shown to be inextricably connected with the destiny of the universe
In its predecessor, these storylines ran largely in side by side. In this final book, they merge. Similar to the original series, Lyra's actions and her fate are shown to be inseparably linked with the future of the realm. Her private mission to rejoin with her soul and regain her creativity becomes the primary conflict in a broader battle with an authoritarian regime which, as such regimes typically do, is seeking to suppress autonomy of reason, originality and art: all the inner, rebellious ways in which humans can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The novel begins with the unveiling of a set of unusual openings in the fabric of the Earth's sky: windows that look to open into other worlds. An example of a portal appears to be the point of the much debated mystical extract. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its leadership, labels these windows as a challenge to the religion's orthodoxy and sets out to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to move from rigid reason and return to feeling, yet, her conviction that these locations must be protected – that their meaning and what they offer is somehow essential – strengthens. "The substance, or the extract, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a poetic struggle between innocence and experience is prepared.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
