Tings are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a world that manifests, here more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from states, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the grasp of crowds. "An element is at work, silently, gradually", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and durable are weakening and collapsing."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that animates The Rose Field, which picks up where its predecessor left off. This is, reportedly, the author's last foray into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling world he first unveiled in the distant past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose geography aligns with that of the real world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and reason and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, essences in creature form; where the skies are populated with witches and gryphons, but below, buses are ridden and tea is sipped, and mature professors carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the prequel, the prequel with which Pullman began the series, is now a young woman: still recognisably the prickly and tenacious protagonist of the prior volumes, but aged, sadder, more careful, more doubtful. This limitation is intensified by her separation from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to go off in search of that childlike part of her which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he represents as her "imagination"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and danger on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in action, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the faith's ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of strict, bureaucratic malice – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's family member, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of head of the authority's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound authority to expand the religion's dominium. Another protagonist, who rescued young Lyra to security along a overflowing river as an child in the first book, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in espionage: he is dispatched to a key location to find out more about the antagonist's plans. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and costly botanical extract which manifests mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and economic crisis emanating out from that area. The substance is regarded by various factions as a commercial good, by alternate groups as a research-based or spiritual miracle, and by yet others – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a origin of evil; an insult that must be eradicated. The question of where it comes from, its significance, and if it should be eliminated or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like His Dark Materials, our protagonist's deeds, and her destiny, are shown to be deeply linked with the destiny of the universe
In its predecessor, these plots ran mostly in tandem. In the conclusion, they come together. As in the first trilogy, the protagonist's movements and her fate are shown to be inseparably linked with the future of the universe. Her private mission to reunite with her soul and rediscover her imagination becomes the key struggle in a larger battle with an oppressive system which, as such regimes always have, is striving to suppress independence of thinking, originality and culture: all the personal, resistant ways in which individuals can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The book opens with the finding of a collection of curious openings in the fabric of the planet's atmosphere: gateways that appear to give on to different dimensions. A particular window appears to be the origin of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The authority, with its leader at its helm, designates these windows as a problem to the church's doctrine and sets out to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from rigid reason and return to feeling, yet, her certainty that these locations must be protected – that their significance and what they provide is somehow crucial – strengthens. "Dust, or the extract, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a philosophical conflict between naivety and experience is set.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
