Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a world that appears, here more than ever, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Establishments are failing, or restructuring themselves along new and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from governments, and gathering in the offices of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the control of crowds. "Some force is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and strong are faltering and giving way."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that drives The Rose Field, which picks up where its predecessor left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding venture into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating universe he first introduced in the distant past, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose terrain corresponds to that of our world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, beings in animal form; where the heavens are filled with witches and legendary creatures, but underneath, transports are ridden and drinks is consumed, and middle-aged scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a child in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still recognisably the spiky and determined protagonist of the previous installments, but more mature, melancholic, warier, more doubtful. This circumscription is amplified by her split from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to leave in quest of that innocent part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which followed Lyra undertake a adventurous voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with marvel and danger on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of strict, procedural wickedness – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the position of leader of the church's governing body, and is determined on using his newfound influence to extend the institution's control. Another protagonist, who carried young Lyra to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in espionage: he is assigned to the city to discover more about Delamare's intentions. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and valuable essential oil which appears mysteriously to be the source of a societal and financial disturbance rippling out from Central Asia. The substance is viewed by various factions as a tradeable commodity, by different parties as a empirical or spiritual phenomenon, and by further factions – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an affront that must be eradicated. The issue of its source, its meaning, and whether it should be eliminated or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like His Dark Materials, our protagonist's actions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran largely in side by side. In the conclusion, they come together. Similar to His Dark Materials, her actions and her destiny are revealed to be deeply woven with the future of the world. Her individual mission to reunite with her soul and rediscover her imagination becomes the primary conflict in a broader conflict with an authoritarian government which, as these systems typically do, is seeking to quell independence of thinking, originality and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which humans can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The novel starts with the discovery of a series of strange fissures in the structure of the planet's air: windows that seem to lead to other worlds. An example of a portal manifests to be the origin of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The church, with Delamare at its head, designates these openings as a challenge to the church's beliefs and aims to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from strict reason and back to instinct, however, her certainty that these places must be protected – that what they stand for and their value is somehow crucial – grows. "The substance, or rose oil, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a Blakean tussle between purity and maturity is established.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
