Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a world that manifests, here more than ever, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or restructuring themselves along new and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is draining from authorities, and pooling in the offices of theocrats, the coffers of conglomerates, the hands of rioters. "Something is at work, very quietly, gradually", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and solid are faltering and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Just what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the inquiry that drives this final volume, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's last foray into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating universe he first revealed three decades past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose geography corresponds to that of this world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, souls in creature form; where the air are populated with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, buses are taken and tea is drunk, and mature academics carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which the author began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the prickly and persistent main character of the earlier books, but aged, sadder, more cautious, less certain. This restraint is heightened by her split from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to leave in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she may have forgotten (an quality which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and peril on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the religious governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of austere, administrative malice – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's uncle, who faults her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of head of the Magisterium's High Council, and is intent on using his recently acquired power to extend the institution's dominium. Another protagonist, who rescued infant the heroine to refuge along a swollen river as an child in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in espionage: he is dispatched to the city to find out more about Delamare's aims. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and valuable rose oil which appears in some way to be the origin of a social and financial upheaval spreading out from that area. The extract is regarded by some as a marketable product, by alternate groups as a scientific or spiritual wonder, and by further factions – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of darkness; an challenge that must be eradicated. The issue of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be destroyed or protected is escalating in importance.
Similar to the first series, Lyra's decisions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran mostly in parallel. In the conclusion, they come together. Similar to His Dark Materials, her actions and her destiny are shown to be deeply linked with the destiny of the realm. Her individual mission to rejoin with her daemon and regain her imagination becomes the central struggle in a wider conflict with an controlling regime which, as such regimes always have, is attempting to suppress autonomy of reason, creativity and expression: all the internal, resistant ways in which humans can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The book starts with the finding of a series of curious cracks in the fabric of the planet's air: gateways that seem to give on to other worlds. An example of a window seems to be the origin of the highly contested botanical substance. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its leadership, designates these openings as a problem to the religion's orthodoxy and sets out to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from strict rationalism and return to intuition, however, her certainty that these sites must be protected – that their meaning and what they offer is mysteriously essential – increases. "The substance, or the extract, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a philosophical struggle between purity and experience is established.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
