Things are collapsing in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a world that seems, in this volume especially, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from governments, and pooling in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of business empires, the grasp of mobs. "An element is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says merchant a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and strong are weakening and failing."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that drives this final volume, which resumes where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding excursion into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating universe he first introduced in the distant past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose geography maps on to that of this world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and reason and act like us, but are joined by animal souls, souls in beast form; where the air are filled with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, buses are caught and beverages is consumed, and mature academics carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a child in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still distinctly the sharp and persistent main character of the prior volumes, but more mature, melancholic, warier, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her separation from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
The daemon's resolve to leave in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she appears to have shed (an quality which he represents as her "vision"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which saw the protagonist undertake a adventurous voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with wonder and peril on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in action, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the religious ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister incarnation of austere, administrative wickedness – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's uncle, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of head of the church's High Council, and is set on using his newfound authority to broaden the institution's dominium. Another protagonist, who saved infant the heroine to safety along a swollen river as an young boy in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is assigned to the city to learn more about the antagonist's intentions. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and costly rose oil which appears in some way to be the source of a societal and financial crisis spreading out from that area. The oil is regarded by various factions as a marketable product, by others as a research-based or mystical wonder, and by yet others – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of evil; an affront that must be destroyed. The issue of where it comes from, its significance, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to His Dark Materials, the heroine's deeds, and her future, are demonstrated to be deeply connected with the fate of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran largely in side by side. In this final book, they come together. Similar to the original series, Lyra's actions and her destiny are revealed to be inseparably linked with the future of the realm. Her individual mission to reconnect with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the central battleground in a wider conflict with an controlling system which, as such regimes always have, is seeking to quell independence of thought, innovation and expression: all the inner, defiant ways in which humans can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The book starts with the discovery of a set of curious cracks in the structure of the Earth's atmosphere: windows that seem to give on to alternate realities. An example of a window appears to be the origin of the much debated mystical extract. The authority, with the antagonist at its helm, designates these portals as a challenge to the church's orthodoxy and aims to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from strict rationalism and revert to intuition, however, her belief that these sites must be preserved – that their significance and what they provide is mysteriously crucial – increases. "The substance, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a philosophical struggle between naivety and experience is set.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
