Things are falling apart in the last installment 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 tilted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or restructuring themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from authorities, and accumulating in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of corporations, the control of rioters. "Something is at work, silently, very subtly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and strong are deteriorating and giving way."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that animates The Rose Field, which picks up where the previous book ended. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's last excursion into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting world he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose landscape aligns with that of this world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the individuals look and reason and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, souls in animal form; where the air are teeming with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, buses are caught and beverages is consumed, and mature scholars carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still clearly the sharp and determined heroine of the earlier books, but aged, sadder, more cautious, less sure. This circumscription is amplified by her split from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to go off in quest of that youthful part of her which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which saw the protagonist undertake a adventurous voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and danger on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the religious ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister incarnation of rigid, bureaucratic evil – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's family member, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the role of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his recently acquired influence to broaden the religion's control. Another protagonist, who carried infant Lyra to safety along a overflowing river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is dispatched to Geneva to find out more about the antagonist's plans. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and valuable essential oil which appears in some way to be the source of a social and economic disturbance emanating out from that area. The extract is viewed by various factions as a tradeable product, by alternate groups as a research-based or spiritual miracle, and by yet others – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of evil; an challenge that must be destroyed. The question of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
As in the first series, Lyra's deeds, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inextricably connected with the fate of the world
In its predecessor, these storylines ran mostly in side by side. In this final book, they come together. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's actions and her fate are unveiled to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the universe. Her personal journey to reconnect with her daemon and regain her vision becomes the primary battleground in a larger battle with an authoritarian regime which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to stifle independence of thinking, innovation and art: all the inner, defiant ways in which people can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The novel opens with the discovery of a set of curious openings in the makeup of the Earth's air: windows that look to lead to different dimensions. An example of a opening appears to be the origin of the highly contested rose oil. The authority, with the antagonist at its helm, classifies these windows as a threat to the church's orthodoxy and aims to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to shift from rigid rationalism and return to instinct, however, her conviction that these places must be preserved – that their significance and what they provide is in some way vital – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we label it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a Blakean tussle between naivety and knowledge is established.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
