Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that seems, here more than ever, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from governments, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the control of rioters. "Some force is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were stable and durable are weakening and failing."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the inquiry that animates The Rose Field, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's last foray into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting world he first revealed 30 years ago, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a world whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and think and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, souls in beast form; where the skies are teeming with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, vehicles are ridden and drinks is consumed, and mature scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the prequel, the origin story with which Pullman began the series, is now a young woman: still clearly the prickly and tenacious heroine of the earlier books, but aged, more sorrowful, warier, less sure. This restraint is intensified by her separation from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to leave in quest of that innocent part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an quality which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and danger on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in action, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the faith's ruling body, and the author's masterfully eerie embodiment of strict, bureaucratic wickedness – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the office of head of the church's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his newfound power to broaden the church's control. A key character, who saved infant Lyra to security along a swollen Thames as an child in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is assigned to a key location to discover more about his aims. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and precious essential oil which appears in some way to be the source of a social and financial upheaval spreading out from the region. The extract is viewed by some as a commercial good, by different parties as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by others still – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a origin of evil; an challenge that must be eradicated. The issue of where it comes from, its significance, and whether it should be destroyed or preserved is escalating in importance.
Similar to His Dark Materials, the heroine's actions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inextricably connected with the fate of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran broadly in side by side. In this final book, they come together. Similar to His Dark Materials, her movements and her destiny are shown to be inextricably woven with the destiny of the realm. Her private quest to reconnect with her companion and recover her creativity becomes the primary conflict in a larger war with an oppressive government which, as these systems often attempt, is seeking to suppress autonomy of thought, innovation and expression: all the inner, rebellious ways in which individuals can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The story starts with the unveiling of a series of strange openings in the structure of the planet's atmosphere: windows that appear to give on to other worlds. A particular portal appears to be the source of the much debated rose oil. The church, with its leader at its head, labels these windows as a threat to the religion's orthodoxy and aims to destroy them. As the heroine begins to turn away from rigid reason and revert to instinct, nevertheless, her belief that these locations must be protected – that what they stand for and what they offer is in some way vital – strengthens. "The substance, or the extract, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or whatever we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a philosophical tussle between innocence and knowledge is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
