Things are falling apart in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a universe that manifests, now more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or reassembling themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is draining from states, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the hands of rioters. "Some force is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and solid are weakening and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that propels The Rose Field, which resumes where the previous book left off. This is, by all accounts, the author's last foray into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting realm he first introduced 30 years ago, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose geography corresponds to that of this world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and act like us, but are joined by daemons, souls in creature form; where the skies are teeming with sorceresses and gryphons, but below, vehicles are caught and drinks is sipped, and older scholars carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still distinctly the spiky and persistent heroine of the previous installments, but aged, melancholic, warier, less sure. This limitation is intensified by her split from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to go off in quest of that innocent part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an quality which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with wonder and danger on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in action, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the religious controlling power, and the author's brilliantly sinister embodiment of austere, procedural malice – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – our protagonist's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of president of the church's governing body, and is determined on using his fresh authority to extend the church's rule. A key character, who rescued young the heroine to safety along a flooded Thames as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to the city to learn more about his aims. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which appears in some way to be the cause of a social and economic upheaval emanating out from the region. The oil is viewed by various factions as a commercial commodity, by different parties as a scientific or spiritual wonder, and by others still – the zealous "highland figures" – as a source of darkness; an challenge that must be destroyed. The question of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or protected is escalating in importance.
As in His Dark Materials, our protagonist's decisions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be deeply linked with the fate of the universe
In its predecessor, these plots ran largely in tandem. In The Rose Field, they converge. Similar to the original series, Lyra's movements and her path are revealed to be inseparably woven with the future of the universe. Her personal quest to reconnect with her companion and rediscover her vision becomes the central struggle in a wider battle with an oppressive system which, as such regimes typically do, is seeking to quell freedom of thinking, innovation and art: all the personal, defiant ways in which people can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The novel begins with the unveiling of a collection of curious openings in the fabric of the planet's atmosphere: windows that seem to lead to different dimensions. An example of a window appears to be the point of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The Magisterium, with its leader at its helm, classifies these portals as a challenge to the institution's beliefs and aims to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to shift from inflexible reason and revert to instinct, yet, her belief that these places must be preserved – that their meaning and what they provide is in some way essential – increases. "Dust, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a philosophical tussle between purity and experience is established.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the