Things are collapsing in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's grand trilogies set in a universe that appears, in this volume especially, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reassembling 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". Control is draining from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the treasuries of corporations, the hands of crowds. "Something is at work, very quietly, gradually", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were secure and durable are deteriorating and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that animates the concluding book, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding excursion into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting realm he first introduced three decades past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose landscape aligns with that of the real world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the people appear and reason and behave like us, but are joined by daemons, beings in animal form; where the air are populated with sorceresses and gryphons, but beneath those skies, transports are caught and tea is consumed, and older scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the sharp and determined main character of the earlier books, but more mature, melancholic, warier, more doubtful. This restraint is intensified by her separation from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to leave in search of that innocent part of her which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with wonder and peril on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of rigid, administrative wickedness – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's family member, who blames her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of leader of the church's High Council, and is intent on using his fresh authority to broaden the religion's dominium. A key character, who saved infant Lyra to refuge along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an academic with a secondary role in spycraft: he is sent to Geneva to learn more about Delamare's intentions. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and costly rose oil which seems mysteriously to be the origin of a societal and financial crisis emanating out from Central Asia. The extract is viewed by various factions as a tradeable good, by others as a scientific or esoteric phenomenon, and by further factions – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a source of evil; an challenge that must be destroyed. The issue of its origins, its significance, and if it should be destroyed or protected is becoming urgent.
As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's deeds, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be deeply linked with the destiny of the realm
In its predecessor, these plots ran largely in parallel. In the conclusion, they come together. As in the first trilogy, the protagonist's movements and her path are unveiled to be inextricably woven with the destiny of the realm. Her private quest to reconnect with her companion and recover her imagination becomes the central battleground in a larger battle with an oppressive system which, as such regimes often attempt, is attempting to quell independence of thinking, originality and expression: all the internal, defiant ways in which individuals can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The story starts with the discovery of a collection of curious fissures in the structure of the planet's sky: gateways that seem to lead to different dimensions. One such opening manifests to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its leadership, labels these portals as a problem to the church's doctrine and endeavors to destroy them. As Lyra begins to shift from rigid logic and revert to feeling, however, her certainty that these locations must be preserved – that their meaning and what they offer is mysteriously vital – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or whatever we call it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a philosophical struggle between naivety and maturity is established.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
