Tings are unraveling in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that appears, in this volume especially, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from governments, and pooling in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of conglomerates, the hands of mobs. "An element is at work, very quietly, gradually", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and durable are deteriorating and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Exactly what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where the previous book concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding excursion into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling realm he first unveiled three decades past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans look and reason and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, souls in beast form; where the skies are teeming with enchantresses and gryphons, but underneath, vehicles are caught and drinks is consumed, and older academics carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, 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 prequel with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still distinctly the spiky and determined heroine of the previous installments, but aged, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is amplified by her split from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
The daemon's resolve to go off in pursuit of that innocent part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an quality which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque journey across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with wonder and danger on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the church's controlling power, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister incarnation of austere, administrative wickedness – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's relative, who faults her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the position of president of the church's High Council, and is determined on using his fresh influence to broaden the religion's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who saved infant the heroine to refuge along a overflowing river as an young boy in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in intelligence work: he is dispatched to the city to discover more about his intentions. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and costly essential oil which seems in some way to be the cause of a societal and economic crisis spreading out from the region. The extract is viewed by various factions as a commercial commodity, by others as a scientific or esoteric wonder, and by others still – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a origin of malevolence; an challenge that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be removed or protected is escalating in importance.
Similar to His Dark Materials, the heroine's deeds, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be deeply connected with the destiny of the universe
In the previous volume, these storylines ran broadly in side by side. In the conclusion, they merge. Similar to the original series, the protagonist's movements and her path are shown to be inseparably entwined with the destiny of the world. Her private journey to reunite with her companion and rediscover her vision becomes the key struggle in a wider battle with an authoritarian government which, as these systems always have, is attempting to stifle freedom of reason, creativity and expression: all the internal, defiant ways in which people can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The novel starts with the unveiling of a set of curious fissures in the structure of the planet's air: windows that appear to lead to other worlds. A particular opening appears to be the point of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The church, with its leader at its leadership, classifies these portals as a threat to the religion's orthodoxy and aims to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from inflexible reason and back to intuition, yet, her certainty that these sites must be preserved – that what they stand for and what they offer is in some way essential – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a poetic conflict between innocence and maturity is established.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
