Things are falling apart in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that manifests, now more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reorganizing themselves along new and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from states, and pooling in the halls of religious leaders, the vaults of business empires, the grasp of mobs. "An element is at work, silently, gradually", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and solid are deteriorating and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that drives the concluding book, which resumes where its predecessor concluded. This is, according to many, Pullman's final excursion into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling universe he first revealed 30 years ago, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose terrain corresponds to that of our world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals look and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, souls in creature form; where the skies are filled with witches and gryphons, but below, transports are caught and drinks is drunk, and mature academics carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the first volume, the origin story with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still clearly the sharp and tenacious heroine of the earlier books, but older, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her separation from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to leave in pursuit of that childlike part of her which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he represents as her "vision"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and peril on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in action, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of rigid, procedural wickedness – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's family member, who blames her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of head of the Magisterium's High Council, and is intent on using his recently acquired power to expand the religion's rule. Another protagonist, who saved baby Lyra to security along a swollen river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in spycraft: he is assigned to a key location to find out more about his plans. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and precious essential oil which appears in some way to be the source of a societal and economic crisis spreading out from the region. The oil is viewed by certain groups as a commercial good, by alternate groups as a scientific or mystical miracle, and by others still – the zealous "highland figures" – as a origin of evil; an insult that must be obliterated. The question of its source, its meaning, and if it should be eliminated or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Like His Dark Materials, the heroine's decisions, and her future, are demonstrated to be inseparably entwined with the destiny of the world
In its predecessor, these narratives ran broadly in parallel. In this final book, they come together. Like His Dark Materials, her movements and her path are revealed to be deeply entwined with the fate of the world. Her private mission to rejoin with her daemon and regain her vision becomes the central battleground in a wider war with an controlling regime which, as such regimes often attempt, is striving to quell independence of thinking, innovation and culture: all the personal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The book begins with the discovery of a collection of curious openings in the makeup of the world's sky: portals that seem to open into alternate realities. An example of a portal manifests to be the source of the highly contested botanical substance. The church, with Delamare at its leadership, labels these openings as a problem to the institution's doctrine and sets out to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to move from inflexible reason and return to instinct, yet, her certainty that these places must be protected – that their significance and what they offer is in some way essential – grows. "The substance, or the substance, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a philosophical tussle between innocence and experience is established.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
