Things are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that appears, now more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or restructuring themselves along new and troubling lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from governments, and gathering in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the control of mobs. "Something is at work, stealthily, gradually", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and durable are weakening and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that drives the concluding book, which picks up where its predecessor concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's final excursion into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating universe he first introduced 30 years ago, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose terrain maps on 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 animal souls, souls in beast form; where the heavens are teeming with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, transports are taken and tea is drunk, and older scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still recognisably the sharp and determined main character of the previous installments, but aged, melancholic, warier, less certain. This circumscription is heightened by her split from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that innocent part of her which she appears to have shed (an quality which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with amazement and peril on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in play, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's masterfully eerie incarnation of rigid, procedural evil – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. The antagonist – Lyra'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 set on using his fresh authority to broaden the institution's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who saved baby Lyra to safety along a overflowing Thames as an young boy in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in espionage: he is dispatched to the city to discover more about the antagonist's plans. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and precious essential oil which manifests in some way to be the origin of a social and financial upheaval spreading out from that area. The extract is regarded by certain groups as a commercial product, by different parties as a research-based or esoteric miracle, and by yet others – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a origin of evil; an affront that must be destroyed. The issue of where it comes from, its significance, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Like the original trilogy, the heroine's decisions, and her fate, are shown to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the world
In the previous volume, these plots ran mostly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they converge. Like the original series, the protagonist's actions and her path are shown to be deeply woven with the destiny of the universe. Her individual mission to rejoin with her soul and recover her creativity becomes the central battleground in a wider conflict with an authoritarian system which, as these systems often attempt, is striving to quell independence of reason, creativity and culture: all the internal, defiant ways in which humans can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The book begins with the unveiling of a set of unusual cracks in the makeup of the Earth's atmosphere: portals that look to lead to other worlds. One such opening seems to be the origin of the much debated mystical extract. The Magisterium, with its leader at its helm, labels these openings as a problem to the religion's doctrine and endeavors to destroy them. As the heroine begins to turn away from rigid rationalism and revert to instinct, yet, her certainty that these places must be preserved – that their meaning and what they provide is mysteriously crucial – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a Blakean conflict between naivety and knowledge is established.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
