Things are unraveling in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that manifests, in this volume especially, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from states, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of conglomerates, the hands of mobs. "Some force is at work, silently, gradually", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and solid are deteriorating and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that propels The Rose Field, which picks up where the previous book ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding excursion into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling universe he first unveiled in the distant past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose landscape aligns with that of the real world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and behave like us, but are joined by daemons, souls in beast form; where the air are filled with witches and legendary creatures, but below, transports are ridden and tea is drunk, and mature professors carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the prequel, the origin story with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still clearly the spiky and persistent protagonist of the previous installments, but aged, more sorrowful, warier, less certain. This restraint is intensified by her split from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to leave in pursuit of that childlike part of her which she seems to have lost (an trait which he represents as her "creativity"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering 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 ruling body, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of austere, procedural malice – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's relative, who faults her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of leader of the church's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his newfound influence to extend the institution's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued baby Lyra to security along a swollen river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a sideline in intelligence work: he is assigned to the city to find out more about the antagonist's plans. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and precious rose oil which manifests mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and economic upheaval emanating out from the region. The extract is regarded by various factions as a commercial good, by alternate groups as a scientific or esoteric miracle, and by others still – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a origin of malevolence; an challenge that must be obliterated. The issue of its origins, what it stands for, and whether it should be eliminated or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
As in the first series, Lyra's decisions, and her destiny, are revealed to be deeply linked with the fate of the world
In the previous volume, these plots ran broadly in side by side. In this final book, they converge. Similar to the original series, the protagonist's actions and her destiny are shown to be inextricably woven with the fate of the universe. Her personal quest to reunite with her companion and regain her creativity becomes the key struggle in a wider war with an oppressive system which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to suppress freedom of thought, innovation and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which people can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The novel starts with the discovery of a series of unusual fissures in the fabric of the planet's atmosphere: windows that seem to open into other worlds. A particular portal manifests to be the source of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The Magisterium, with its leader at its helm, designates these windows as a problem to the religion's doctrine and sets out to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from inflexible logic and revert to intuition, yet, her conviction that these places must be defended – that their meaning and what they provide is in some way vital – strengthens. "The substance, or the extract, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a philosophical tussle between purity and maturity is set.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
