Things are unraveling in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that seems, in this volume especially, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is draining from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the control of mobs. "An element is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and durable are deteriorating and giving way."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Just what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that drives the concluding book, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, reportedly, Pullman's last venture into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting world he first unveiled in the distant past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose terrain maps on to that of this world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the people look and reason and behave like us, but are paired by animal souls, beings in beast form; where the air are populated with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, vehicles are caught and drinks is sipped, and older academics carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a child in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still distinctly the spiky and determined main character of the prior volumes, but older, sadder, more careful, less sure. This circumscription is intensified by her split from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
The daemon's resolve to leave in search of that innocent part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an quality which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a wandering journey across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with wonder and risk on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in action, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the faith's ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister representation of austere, procedural evil – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the role of president of the Magisterium's governing body, and is intent on using his recently acquired influence to extend the religion's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who carried baby Lyra to security along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in spycraft: he is dispatched to Geneva to learn more about Delamare's aims. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and valuable essential oil which seems in some way to be the origin of a social and financial disturbance rippling out from that area. The oil is regarded by various factions as a marketable good, by others as a empirical or spiritual wonder, and by others still – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of darkness; an affront that must be destroyed. The dilemma of its source, what it stands for, and whether it should be destroyed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to the original trilogy, the heroine's deeds, and her destiny, are shown to be inextricably linked with the future of the universe
In its predecessor, these plots ran broadly in side by side. In the conclusion, they converge. As in the first trilogy, the protagonist's actions and her fate are shown to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the realm. Her personal quest to reconnect with her companion and recover her creativity becomes the central battleground in a larger conflict with an oppressive system which, as such regimes always have, is striving to stifle autonomy of reason, creativity and culture: all the personal, defiant ways in which people can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The novel opens with the discovery of a collection of unusual openings in the fabric of the Earth's sky: windows that seem to open into different dimensions. A particular window manifests to be the origin of the much debated mystical extract. The church, with its leader at its head, labels these windows as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and aims to destroy them. As Lyra begins to turn away from inflexible rationalism and revert to feeling, nevertheless, her belief that these places must be defended – that their meaning and what they offer is mysteriously crucial – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a Blakean struggle between innocence and experience is set.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
