Tings are unraveling 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 energized and skewed version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from governments, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the treasuries of business empires, the hands of rioters. "Something is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says merchant 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 faltering and failing."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Just what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that propels The Rose Field, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's concluding excursion into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating universe he first introduced three decades past, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose geography aligns with that of the real world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and think and act like us, but are paired by daemons, essences in beast form; where the heavens are populated with witches and mythical beasts, but underneath, transports are ridden and beverages is drunk, and older professors carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still distinctly the prickly and determined protagonist of the prior volumes, but more mature, more sorrowful, warier, less certain. This limitation is intensified by her division from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to go off in quest of that innocent part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he represents as her "imagination"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which saw Lyra undertake a adventurous voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with marvel and danger on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in action, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of austere, procedural malice – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's uncle, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the role of leader of the authority's High Council, and is set on using his fresh power to expand the church's control. Another protagonist, who carried infant Lyra to security along a overflowing Thames as an child in the first book, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in spycraft: he is sent to Geneva to learn more about Delamare's intentions. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and valuable rose oil which manifests somehow to be the source of a social and economic disturbance emanating out from the region. The oil is seen by some as a commercial product, by alternate groups as a research-based or mystical wonder, and by others still – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a origin of evil; an insult that must be destroyed. The dilemma of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be eliminated or protected is becoming urgent.
Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's decisions, and her future, are revealed to be inextricably connected with the fate of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran broadly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they merge. Similar to His Dark Materials, her actions and her fate are unveiled to be deeply woven with the fate of the world. Her private mission to reunite with her soul and recover her creativity becomes the primary battleground in a larger battle with an oppressive system which, as such regimes typically do, is seeking to stifle autonomy of reason, innovation and culture: all the internal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The novel starts with the unveiling of a set of curious openings in the makeup of the planet's atmosphere: portals that seem to open into different dimensions. One such window seems to be the source of the highly contested mystical extract. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its helm, labels these openings as a challenge to the church's doctrine and endeavors to destroy them. As Lyra begins to turn away from inflexible logic and back to instinct, however, her conviction that these sites must be preserved – that their significance and what they offer is mysteriously vital – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a Blakean tussle between innocence and maturity is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
