Things are falling apart in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a realm that seems, in this volume especially, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reassembling themselves along new and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from governments, and gathering in the offices of religious leaders, the coffers of business empires, the hands of rioters. "An element is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and solid are weakening and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Just what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's last foray into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating realm he first revealed in the distant past, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a world whose terrain corresponds to that of our world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the humans appear and think and behave like us, but are joined by daemons, essences in creature form; where the air are populated with enchantresses and gryphons, but below, vehicles are caught and tea is consumed, and middle-aged academics carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a child in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still clearly the spiky and determined protagonist of the prior volumes, but aged, melancholic, warier, less certain. This limitation is heightened by her split from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to depart in quest of that childlike part of her which she appears to have shed (an quality which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with wonder and risk on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in action, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the faith's ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister representation of rigid, bureaucratic wickedness – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the role of president of the church's ruling assembly, and is set on using his newfound power to expand the religion's control. A key character, who rescued young Lyra to refuge along a flooded Thames as an child in the prequel, is now an academic with a additional duty in espionage: he is dispatched to a key location to find out more about his intentions. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and valuable botanical extract which appears in some way to be the cause of a social and economic disturbance spreading out from the region. The substance is seen by certain groups as a tradeable product, by others as a scientific or mystical phenomenon, and by yet others – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an challenge that must be obliterated. The issue of where it comes from, what it stands for, and if it should be removed or protected is becoming urgent.
As in the first series, the heroine's actions, and her future, are demonstrated to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the universe
In the previous volume, these plots ran mostly in tandem. In this final book, they come together. Like His Dark Materials, the protagonist's choices and her path are shown to be inextricably linked with the fate of the realm. Her private mission to reconnect with her companion and regain her creativity becomes the central struggle in a wider conflict with an oppressive government which, as such regimes often attempt, is attempting to quell freedom of thinking, originality and expression: all the internal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The book begins with the unveiling of a series of strange cracks in the structure of the planet's atmosphere: gateways that appear to give on to other worlds. One such portal appears to be the origin of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The Magisterium, with its leader at its head, classifies these windows as a threat to the church's beliefs and sets out to destroy them. As the heroine begins to shift from inflexible logic and return to feeling, nevertheless, her certainty that these sites must be preserved – that what they stand for and their value is in some way crucial – grows. "The substance, or the extract, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a poetic tussle between innocence and experience is established.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
