Tings are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a universe that appears, in this volume especially, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reorganizing themselves along novel and troubling lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from governments, and pooling in the offices of theocrats, the treasuries of business empires, the control of crowds. "Something is at work, silently, very subtly", says trader a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his post in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and solid are faltering and giving way."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which picks up where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's concluding venture into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating realm he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose terrain corresponds to that of this world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the people look and reason and behave like us, but are paired by daemons, beings in creature form; where the heavens are populated with enchantresses and gryphons, but beneath those skies, buses are ridden and drinks is sipped, and middle-aged scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still clearly the sharp and determined heroine of the prior volumes, but aged, melancholic, warier, less sure. This circumscription is intensified by her split from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to depart in pursuit of that youthful part of her which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous journey across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and risk on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in play, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of strict, bureaucratic evil – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's relative, who blames her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the office of president of the Magisterium's governing body, and is set on using his fresh influence to expand the religion's control. A key character, who rescued baby Lyra to security along a swollen river as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in espionage: he is sent to a key location to discover more about Delamare's aims. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and precious rose oil which seems in some way to be the origin of a societal and economic crisis spreading out from Central Asia. The substance is seen by some as a marketable product, by others as a research-based or esoteric wonder, and by yet others – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a source of malevolence; an insult that must be destroyed. The question of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be eliminated or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions, and her future, are demonstrated to be inseparably entwined with the destiny of the realm
In its predecessor, these plots ran mostly in tandem. In the conclusion, they merge. Similar to the first trilogy, the protagonist's actions and her path are unveiled to be inseparably entwined with the destiny of the world. Her individual journey to reunite with her soul and regain her creativity becomes the primary struggle in a wider war with an oppressive regime which, as these systems always have, is attempting to stifle autonomy of thinking, originality and art: all the personal, resistant ways in which people can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The novel begins with the discovery of a set of strange fissures in the fabric of the Earth's air: windows that seem to give on to different dimensions. A particular portal manifests to be the source of the highly contested mystical extract. The Magisterium, with its leader at its helm, classifies these openings as a problem to the institution's beliefs and sets out to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to shift from rigid reason and revert to feeling, yet, her belief that these places must be defended – that what they stand for and what they offer is in some way vital – strengthens. "Dust, or the extract, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a philosophical struggle between purity and maturity is established.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
