Things are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that appears, here more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from governments, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the vaults of business empires, the control of crowds. "An element is at work, silently, very subtly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and solid are deteriorating and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that propels The Rose Field, which picks up where the previous book concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's concluding foray into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling universe he first unveiled three decades past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans look and think and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, souls in animal form; where the heavens are teeming with enchantresses and gryphons, but below, vehicles are ridden and tea is sipped, and mature scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the prequel, the origin story with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still recognisably the prickly and tenacious heroine of the earlier books, but aged, more sorrowful, warier, more doubtful. This circumscription is heightened by her division from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to depart in search of that childlike part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an quality which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which followed Lyra undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with wonder and danger on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in play, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the faith's controlling power, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of austere, administrative wickedness – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. The antagonist – Lyra's family member, who faults her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the position of head of the Magisterium's governing body, and is intent on using his recently acquired authority to extend the institution's dominium. Another protagonist, who rescued baby Lyra to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in espionage: he is assigned to Geneva to learn more about his plans. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and precious rose oil which manifests in some way to be the source of a social and economic crisis rippling out from the region. The extract is regarded by some as a marketable product, by others as a scientific or esoteric wonder, and by yet others – the zealous "highland figures" – as a origin of malevolence; an challenge that must be destroyed. The question of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be removed or preserved is becoming urgent.
Like the original trilogy, our protagonist's decisions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the universe
In the previous volume, these storylines ran broadly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they come together. Like the original series, Lyra's choices and her path are shown to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the realm. Her private journey to reconnect with her companion and recover her creativity becomes the key struggle in a larger battle with an controlling system which, as such authorities typically do, is striving to stifle freedom of reason, creativity and expression: all the personal, defiant ways in which individuals can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The novel starts with the discovery of a series of strange openings in the makeup of the planet's air: windows that look to open into alternate realities. One such window manifests to be the origin of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The church, with the antagonist at its leadership, labels these portals as a problem to the institution's orthodoxy and endeavors to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from rigid reason and revert to feeling, yet, her conviction that these sites must be defended – that their significance and what they provide is mysteriously vital – grows. "The substance, or the substance, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a philosophical tussle between innocence and maturity is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
