Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a universe that seems, here more than ever, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reassembling themselves along novel and troubling lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from states, and accumulating in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of business empires, the control of crowds. "Some force is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and solid are weakening and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that drives the concluding book, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, by all accounts, the author's concluding venture into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting world he first revealed three decades past, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose terrain aligns with that of the real world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and behave like us, but are paired by animal souls, essences in animal form; where the heavens are filled with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, transports are taken and beverages is consumed, and older professors carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still clearly the sharp and tenacious heroine of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, warier, less sure. This circumscription is amplified by her division from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to leave in pursuit of that childlike part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an trait which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a adventurous voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with marvel and danger on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of strict, procedural evil – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's uncle, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the role of leader of the authority's High Council, and is set on using his newfound authority to extend the institution's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued infant the heroine to refuge along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in espionage: he is dispatched to the city to learn more about Delamare's intentions. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and precious rose oil which manifests in some way to be the source of a social and economic upheaval rippling out from the region. The substance is regarded by certain groups as a tradeable good, by alternate groups as a scientific or spiritual miracle, and by further factions – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of evil; an affront that must be obliterated. The dilemma of where it comes from, its significance, and if it should be removed or preserved is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like His Dark Materials, the heroine's deeds, and her future, are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the universe
In the previous volume, these storylines ran mostly in parallel. In this final book, they converge. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's movements and her destiny are shown to be deeply woven with the destiny of the universe. Her personal quest to reconnect with her daemon and rediscover her creativity becomes the primary battleground in a larger war with an controlling government which, as such regimes typically do, is seeking to quell freedom of thought, innovation and culture: all the internal, defiant ways in which humans can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The novel opens with the unveiling of a series of unusual openings in the makeup of the world's atmosphere: windows that appear to give on to alternate realities. A particular window manifests to be the source of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The church, with its leader at its helm, classifies these windows as a challenge to the church's doctrine and sets out to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from strict rationalism and revert to feeling, nevertheless, her belief that these places must be defended – that their meaning and what they offer is mysteriously crucial – increases. "The substance, or the extract, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a Blakean tussle between naivety and knowledge is set.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
