Things are collapsing in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a realm that manifests, in this volume especially, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or restructuring themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from governments, and gathering in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the control of mobs. "An element is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and strong are weakening and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Precisely what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where the previous book left off. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding foray into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting realm he first revealed in the distant past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose terrain aligns with that of our world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the people appear and think and act like us, but are joined by animal souls, beings in animal form; where the heavens are teeming with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but below, buses are taken and drinks is sipped, and older scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which the author began this trilogy, is now a adult: still distinctly the sharp and determined protagonist of the prior volumes, but older, melancholic, more careful, more doubtful. This circumscription is heightened by her division from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that youthful part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an trait which he represents as her "vision"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which saw Lyra undertake a wandering trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, meeting with marvel and risk on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in action, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the religious controlling power, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of rigid, administrative evil – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – the heroine'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 ruling assembly, and is set on using his newfound power to expand the institution's dominium. Another protagonist, who saved infant the heroine to refuge along a flooded river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a secondary role in spycraft: he is sent to a key location to discover more about his intentions. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and costly botanical extract which appears in some way to be the source of a societal and financial crisis rippling out from the region. The oil is viewed by various factions as a tradeable commodity, by alternate groups as a scientific or mystical miracle, and by further factions – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of evil; an insult that must be eradicated. The issue of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Like the first series, our protagonist's decisions, and her fate, are demonstrated to be deeply linked with the future of the universe
In the previous volume, these storylines ran broadly in parallel. In the conclusion, they come together. Similar to the original series, Lyra's movements and her destiny are unveiled to be inseparably linked with the fate of the realm. Her personal mission to reconnect with her soul and regain her vision becomes the central struggle in a wider war with an authoritarian system which, as these systems always have, is striving to quell autonomy of thought, creativity and art: all the personal, defiant ways in which people can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The story starts with the finding of a series of curious cracks in the fabric of the planet's air: portals that look to give on to different dimensions. One such window seems to be the point of the highly contested botanical substance. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its leadership, classifies these openings as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and endeavors to destroy them. As Lyra begins to turn away from rigid logic and back to feeling, nevertheless, her conviction that these places must be defended – that their meaning and their value is somehow vital – increases. "Dust, or the extract, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a poetic struggle between naivety and maturity is set.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
