Tings are unraveling in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that manifests, in this volume especially, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along new and troubling lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is draining from authorities, and accumulating in the halls of religious leaders, the coffers of conglomerates, the hands of mobs. "Something is at work, silently, gradually", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and solid are faltering and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Precisely what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that animates this final volume, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, according to many, the author's final foray into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating universe he first revealed in the distant past, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a world whose geography corresponds to that of this world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans look and reason and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, beings in beast form; where the air are populated with witches and legendary creatures, but below, buses are caught and beverages is consumed, and older professors carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the first volume, the origin story with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the prickly and tenacious heroine of the previous installments, but more mature, more sorrowful, more careful, more doubtful. This limitation is heightened by her split from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to depart in quest of that innocent part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an trait which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which followed Lyra undertake a adventurous trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with marvel and danger on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in action, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister incarnation of strict, administrative evil – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's family member, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the role of president of the authority's High Council, and is intent on using his newfound influence to broaden the religion's dominium. A key character, who rescued baby Lyra to refuge along a flooded river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in spycraft: he is assigned to Geneva to discover more about his intentions. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and precious rose oil which seems in some way to be the source of a societal and economic disturbance emanating out from that area. The oil is regarded by various factions as a commercial product, by different parties as a research-based or mystical miracle, and by further factions – the extremist "highland figures" – as a origin of malevolence; an insult that must be obliterated. The issue of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to the original trilogy, Lyra's deeds, and her future, are shown to be inextricably linked with the future of the universe
In the previous volume, these narratives ran mostly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they come together. As in the first trilogy, Lyra's actions and her destiny are revealed to be deeply woven with the future of the realm. Her private journey to rejoin with her soul and recover her imagination becomes the key battleground in a wider conflict with an controlling system which, as these systems always have, is striving to quell freedom of thought, innovation and culture: all the personal, rebellious ways in which humans can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The book opens with the finding of a collection of unusual openings in the makeup of the Earth's sky: portals that seem to lead to different dimensions. A particular opening appears to be the source of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The authority, with Delamare at its helm, labels these portals as a challenge to the church's doctrine and sets out to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to move from strict reason and revert to feeling, yet, her certainty that these locations must be defended – that their meaning and what they provide is in some way vital – increases. "The substance, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a Blakean conflict between innocence and maturity is established.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
