Tings are falling apart in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's grand trilogies set in a universe that manifests, in this volume especially, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from states, and gathering in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the control of crowds. "Some force is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and solid are deteriorating and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Just what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that animates the concluding book, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, according to many, Pullman's final foray into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting universe he first unveiled in the distant past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a world whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the people look and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, beings in animal form; where the skies are filled with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, transports are ridden and tea is drunk, and mature professors carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a child in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still clearly the spiky and tenacious heroine of the previous installments, but aged, melancholic, warier, less sure. This restraint is amplified by her split from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to leave in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which chronicled Lyra undertake a adventurous voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with wonder and peril on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of strict, administrative malice – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who blames her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the position of leader of the Magisterium's governing body, and is intent on using his fresh authority to extend the institution's dominium. A key character, who carried infant the heroine to refuge along a flooded river as an young boy in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in intelligence work: he is sent to the city to find out more about Delamare's plans. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and costly rose oil which seems mysteriously to be the origin of a societal and financial crisis emanating out from the region. The substance is regarded by various factions as a marketable good, by others as a research-based or esoteric phenomenon, and by further factions – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an challenge that must be destroyed. The dilemma of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is becoming urgent.
Like the first series, Lyra's decisions, and her destiny, are revealed to be deeply connected with the future of the realm
In the previous volume, these storylines ran broadly in side by side. In this final book, they converge. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's actions and her path are unveiled to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the realm. Her personal mission to reunite with her companion and regain her vision becomes the central struggle in a larger war with an controlling government which, as these systems often attempt, is seeking to suppress freedom of thinking, creativity and expression: all the inner, rebellious ways in which individuals can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The novel starts with the finding of a series of strange openings in the fabric of the planet's atmosphere: portals that look to lead to different dimensions. A particular opening seems to be the source of the much debated rose oil. The church, with the antagonist at its helm, labels these openings as a problem to the religion's doctrine and endeavors to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to shift from strict logic and return to feeling, nevertheless, her belief that these places must be defended – that what they stand for and what they provide is mysteriously essential – grows. "Dust, or the extract, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a poetic tussle between innocence and knowledge is set.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
