Things are falling apart in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a world that appears, here more than ever, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Organizations are failing, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is draining from states, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the vaults of conglomerates, the grasp of crowds. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an city cafe. "Things we thought were secure and solid are deteriorating and failing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Precisely what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that animates The Rose Field, which continues where its predecessor left off. This is, by all accounts, the author's final venture into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting world he first revealed three decades past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose landscape corresponds to that of our world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans look and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by daemons, beings in animal form; where the skies are filled with sorceresses and gryphons, but underneath, buses are taken and beverages is consumed, and middle-aged scholars carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the prickly and tenacious main character of the earlier books, but aged, more sorrowful, more cautious, more doubtful. This circumscription is heightened by her separation from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to go off in search of that youthful part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an quality which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and danger on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the faith's controlling power, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister embodiment of austere, bureaucratic evil – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who faults her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the position of leader of the church's governing body, and is set on using his fresh influence to broaden the church's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who saved young Lyra to refuge along a swollen river as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is assigned to a key location to learn more about his aims. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and costly essential oil which seems mysteriously to be the origin of a societal and financial disturbance spreading out from the region. The oil is viewed by certain groups as a tradeable product, by others as a scientific or spiritual wonder, and by yet others – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of malevolence; an challenge that must be destroyed. The issue of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Like the original trilogy, the heroine's deeds, and her future, are revealed to be inseparably entwined with the fate of the world
In its predecessor, these plots ran mostly in parallel. In this final book, they merge. Similar to the first trilogy, the protagonist's choices and her fate are revealed to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the universe. Her individual journey to reconnect with her companion and rediscover her imagination becomes the primary conflict in a larger war with an oppressive government which, as such regimes often attempt, is attempting to stifle freedom of reason, originality and culture: all the internal, defiant ways in which humans can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The story opens with the unveiling of a series of unusual openings in the makeup of the Earth's air: gateways that seem to open into alternate realities. A particular portal manifests to be the origin of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its leadership, designates these openings as a threat to the religion's orthodoxy and endeavors to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from inflexible reason and back to instinct, yet, her certainty that these locations must be defended – that their significance and what they provide is in some way crucial – strengthens. "Dust, or the extract, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a poetic struggle between naivety and maturity is prepared.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
