Things are collapsing in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that manifests, in this volume especially, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reassembling themselves along new and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is draining from governments, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the control of rioters. "Some force is at work, very quietly, gradually", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and strong are faltering and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that propels the concluding book, which continues where its predecessor ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's last venture into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating realm he first introduced in the distant past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose terrain aligns with that of our world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the people look and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, essences in beast form; where the skies are populated with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but below, vehicles are ridden and drinks is drunk, and older academics carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the prequel, the introductory book with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still distinctly the spiky and persistent heroine of the prior volumes, but older, melancholic, warier, more doubtful. This circumscription is intensified by her split from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to go off in search of that innocent part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which chronicled Lyra undertake a wandering trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with marvel and peril on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of austere, procedural malice – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's uncle, who blames her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his recently acquired authority to expand the institution's control. Malcolm Polstead, who carried young the heroine to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a sideline in intelligence work: he is sent to a key location to learn more about his aims. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and valuable rose oil which manifests somehow to be the cause of a societal and financial upheaval emanating out from the region. The substance is viewed by some as a tradeable product, by alternate groups as a empirical or mystical miracle, and by others still – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an affront that must be obliterated. The question of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be eliminated or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions, and her future, are shown to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the realm
In its predecessor, these storylines ran mostly in parallel. In this final book, they converge. Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's movements and her path are revealed to be inseparably linked with the future of the realm. Her private mission to rejoin with her daemon and regain her creativity becomes the key battleground in a broader conflict with an oppressive regime which, as these systems often attempt, is seeking to suppress independence of thinking, creativity and expression: all the inner, rebellious ways in which humans can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The story begins with the discovery of a collection of unusual openings in the makeup of the Earth's sky: windows that appear to open into alternate realities. One such portal manifests to be the origin of the highly contested botanical substance. The authority, with Delamare at its head, classifies these windows as a threat to the church's beliefs and sets out to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to move from inflexible logic and back to feeling, yet, her conviction that these sites must be protected – that their meaning and what they offer is somehow vital – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical tussle between purity and experience is set.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
