Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's grand trilogies set in a realm that appears, here more than ever, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reorganizing themselves along new and troubling lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from authorities, and accumulating in the offices of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the hands of rioters. "An element is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and durable are deteriorating and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Exactly what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that animates this final volume, which picks up where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's concluding excursion into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting world he first introduced three decades past, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a world whose geography corresponds to that of our world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are joined by daemons, essences in beast form; where the air are teeming with witches and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, transports are taken and drinks is sipped, and mature scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the prickly and determined heroine of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This limitation is heightened by her division from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to go off in search of that youthful part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an trait which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and danger on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the faith's governing authority, and the author's masterfully eerie incarnation of rigid, administrative malice – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's relative, who faults her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of president of the authority's governing body, and is intent on using his fresh influence to extend the religion's control. Another protagonist, who rescued infant the heroine to security along a swollen Thames as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is sent to Geneva to find out more about the antagonist's plans. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and costly essential oil which seems somehow to be the origin of a social and economic disturbance spreading out from that area. The substance is seen by certain groups as a marketable commodity, by alternate groups as a empirical or mystical miracle, and by further factions – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a origin of malevolence; an insult that must be destroyed. The question of its source, what it stands for, and whether it should be eliminated or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Similar to the first series, the heroine's decisions, and her future, are demonstrated to be deeply linked with the destiny of the universe
In its predecessor, these narratives ran broadly in side by side. In the conclusion, they merge. As in the first trilogy, her actions and her destiny are unveiled to be inextricably linked with the fate of the realm. Her individual journey to reunite with her companion and regain her creativity becomes the primary conflict in a wider battle with an authoritarian government which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to quell autonomy of reason, originality and expression: all the inner, resistant ways in which humans can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The book starts with the discovery of a collection of curious fissures in the makeup of the world's sky: gateways that seem to give on to different dimensions. A particular portal manifests to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The authority, with its leader at its leadership, labels these windows as a problem to the church's orthodoxy and endeavors to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from strict rationalism and revert to intuition, nevertheless, her certainty that these sites must be preserved – that their meaning and what they offer is mysteriously essential – increases. "Dust, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a Blakean struggle between purity and knowledge is set.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
