Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a universe that manifests, now more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reorganizing themselves along new and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from governments, and accumulating in the halls of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the grasp of mobs. "Some force is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and durable are deteriorating and failing."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that drives The Rose Field, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, by all accounts, the author's concluding venture into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating universe he first introduced three decades past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography corresponds to that of this world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the people look and reason and behave like us, but are paired by animal souls, essences in beast form; where the heavens are teeming with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, transports are taken and drinks is drunk, and middle-aged professors carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a child in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the first volume, the introductory book with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the prickly and tenacious heroine of the previous installments, but older, sadder, more cautious, less certain. This limitation is amplified by her split from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to depart in pursuit of that childlike part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with wonder and risk on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister incarnation of strict, bureaucratic wickedness – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's family member, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of president of the Magisterium's governing body, and is determined on using his recently acquired power to broaden the church's rule. A key character, who carried young the heroine to security along a overflowing Thames as an child in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in spycraft: he is assigned to a key location to learn more about the antagonist's plans. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and costly rose oil which appears mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and financial disturbance emanating out from the region. The extract is viewed by certain groups as a commercial good, by different parties as a research-based or mystical wonder, and by further factions – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of evil; an affront that must be destroyed. The dilemma of its origins, its significance, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to the original trilogy, the heroine's deeds, and her destiny, are shown to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the world
In its predecessor, these storylines ran broadly in side by side. In the conclusion, they come together. Like the original series, Lyra's actions and her destiny are shown to be inextricably woven with the destiny of the realm. Her private mission to reunite with her companion and rediscover her vision becomes the primary conflict in a wider conflict with an oppressive regime which, as such authorities typically do, is attempting to stifle independence of reason, originality and art: all the inner, resistant ways in which people can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The story starts with the discovery of a collection of strange openings in the fabric of the planet's sky: gateways that appear to lead to different dimensions. A particular opening appears to be the point of the much debated botanical substance. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its helm, labels these openings as a challenge to the institution's beliefs and endeavors to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from rigid logic and back to instinct, yet, her certainty that these locations must be defended – that their significance and their value is mysteriously essential – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we label it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a poetic tussle between purity and knowledge is prepared.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
