Tings are collapsing in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a universe that appears, here more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from governments, and pooling in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the grasp of crowds. "An element is at work, silently, gradually", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and durable are deteriorating and giving way."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Just what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that animates The Rose Field, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding venture into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting world he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography aligns with that of our world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the people look and think and act like us, but are joined by daemons, beings in creature form; where the skies are populated with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but below, vehicles are caught and tea is drunk, and middle-aged academics carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still recognisably the prickly and tenacious main character of the earlier books, but more mature, sadder, warier, more doubtful. This circumscription is intensified by her division from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to depart in quest of that youthful part of her which she may have forgotten (an trait which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with amazement and risk on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the faith's ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister embodiment of rigid, procedural evil – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. The antagonist – our protagonist's relative, who blames her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of head of the Magisterium's High Council, and is determined on using his fresh influence to extend the religion's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who carried young the heroine to safety along a flooded Thames as an young boy in the prequel, is now an academic with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is dispatched to Geneva to find out more about his plans. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and precious botanical extract which manifests mysteriously to be the origin of a social and financial disturbance emanating out from that area. The substance is viewed by various factions as a commercial commodity, by alternate groups as a empirical or mystical miracle, and by others still – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a source of darkness; an insult that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be destroyed or protected is escalating in importance.
As in His Dark Materials, our protagonist's actions, and her fate, are revealed to be inseparably connected with the destiny of the universe
In its predecessor, these storylines ran broadly in side by side. In the conclusion, they merge. As in the first trilogy, Lyra's actions and her destiny are unveiled to be deeply entwined with the fate of the universe. Her personal mission to reunite with her daemon and rediscover her creativity becomes the primary battleground in a larger war with an authoritarian system which, as such authorities always have, is seeking to quell independence of thinking, innovation and art: all the personal, defiant ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The book starts with the unveiling of a series of unusual fissures in the makeup of the world's air: portals that appear to give on to alternate realities. An example of a opening appears to be the point of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its leadership, designates these windows as a problem to the institution's orthodoxy and aims to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from strict rationalism and return to instinct, nevertheless, her belief that these places must be defended – that what they stand for and what they offer is mysteriously essential – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a poetic struggle between innocence and maturity is established.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
