Things are falling apart in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that manifests, here more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from states, and pooling in the chambers of theocrats, the coffers of conglomerates, the grasp of rioters. "Something is at work, silently, gradually", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an city cafe. "Things we thought were stable and strong are weakening and collapsing."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that drives this final volume, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's final foray into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting realm he first revealed in the distant past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and think and behave like us, but are paired by daemons, souls in animal form; where the heavens are populated with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, transports are taken and beverages is sipped, and middle-aged scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the prequel, the introductory book with which Pullman began the series, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the sharp and persistent protagonist of the earlier books, but more mature, more sorrowful, more cautious, less certain. This restraint is heightened by her split from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to leave in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an trait which he represents as her "imagination"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which chronicled Lyra undertake a wandering journey across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with marvel and risk on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of strict, administrative wickedness – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the position of president of the Magisterium's High Council, and is set on using his newfound influence to expand the church's control. Another protagonist, who carried baby the heroine to security along a swollen river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a sideline in espionage: he is dispatched to a key location to learn more about Delamare's aims. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and costly botanical extract which seems somehow to be the origin of a social and economic crisis emanating out from Central Asia. The oil is seen by some as a commercial commodity, by different parties as a research-based or spiritual miracle, and by yet others – the extremist "highland figures" – as a wellspring of darkness; an challenge that must be eradicated. The issue of where it comes from, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Similar to the first series, our protagonist's deeds, and her fate, are revealed to be deeply entwined with the fate of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran mostly in parallel. In this final book, they converge. As in the original series, her movements and her fate are revealed to be inextricably linked with the fate of the universe. Her individual quest to rejoin with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the primary conflict in a larger battle with an authoritarian government which, as such regimes always have, is seeking to quell autonomy of thinking, innovation and art: all the personal, rebellious ways in which people can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The story opens with the unveiling of a series of strange cracks in the fabric of the planet's atmosphere: portals that seem to give on to alternate realities. One such portal appears to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The authority, with its leader at its leadership, labels these openings as a threat to the institution's orthodoxy and aims to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from strict rationalism and revert to intuition, however, her conviction that these sites must be preserved – that their meaning and what they provide is mysteriously crucial – increases. "The substance, or the substance, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a Blakean conflict between purity and knowledge is prepared.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
