Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that seems, now more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from governments, and accumulating in the chambers of theocrats, the coffers of conglomerates, the grasp of mobs. "Some force is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were secure and durable are deteriorating and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Just what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the inquiry that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where the previous book concluded. This is, according to many, the author's concluding venture into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling realm he first introduced three decades past, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a world whose terrain maps on to that of the real world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans look and reason and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, essences in beast form; where the air are teeming with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, vehicles are caught and tea is consumed, and middle-aged scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the prequel, the origin story with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still recognisably the spiky and determined heroine of the prior volumes, but aged, sadder, warier, less sure. This limitation is intensified by her separation from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to go off in pursuit of that childlike part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an trait which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a wandering voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and danger on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in play, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the faith's governing authority, and the author's masterfully eerie embodiment of strict, administrative evil – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of president of the authority's High Council, and is determined on using his recently acquired authority to expand the religion's control. A key character, who saved infant the heroine to refuge along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in espionage: he is sent to a key location to find out more about the antagonist's plans. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and costly essential oil which seems somehow to be the origin of a societal and economic disturbance emanating out from that area. The extract is regarded by certain groups as a marketable commodity, by different parties as a research-based or mystical phenomenon, and by further factions – the extremist "highland figures" – as a wellspring of evil; an insult that must be eradicated. The issue of its origins, what it stands for, and if it should be destroyed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to the original trilogy, the heroine's actions, and her fate, are revealed to be deeply connected with the future of the world
In its predecessor, these plots ran largely in tandem. In this final book, they converge. As in His Dark Materials, the protagonist's choices and her destiny are unveiled to be inextricably entwined with the future of the universe. Her individual quest to reunite with her soul and rediscover her creativity becomes the central conflict in a wider battle with an controlling regime which, as such authorities often attempt, is seeking to suppress independence of thought, originality and expression: all the inner, rebellious ways in which humans can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The story starts with the unveiling of a series of curious cracks in the makeup of the Earth's air: portals that appear to lead to other worlds. A particular opening manifests to be the source of the highly contested mystical extract. The church, with the antagonist at its head, designates these openings as a problem to the institution's doctrine and aims to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to move from rigid rationalism and return to feeling, however, her certainty that these locations must be preserved – that their significance and what they offer is mysteriously crucial – increases. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a poetic conflict between purity and knowledge is set.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
