Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that appears, here more than ever, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or restructuring themselves along new and troubling lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is draining from authorities, and pooling in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the hands of rioters. "Something is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and strong are deteriorating and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Exactly what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that drives The Rose Field, which picks up where its predecessor ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding foray into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling world he first unveiled in the distant past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose landscape corresponds to that of this world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the people appear and reason and behave like us, but are accompanied by daemons, beings in animal form; where the skies are filled with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but below, transports are taken and beverages is drunk, and middle-aged scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still clearly the spiky and tenacious protagonist of the prior volumes, but more mature, more sorrowful, more cautious, less sure. This restraint is heightened by her division from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to depart in search of that innocent part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an trait which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with marvel and risk on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in action, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the church's controlling power, and Pullman's masterfully eerie embodiment of strict, administrative evil – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the position of president of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his recently acquired influence to broaden the religion's rule. Another protagonist, who rescued infant Lyra to security along a flooded Thames as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is assigned to a key location to discover more about his plans. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and precious essential oil which seems in some way to be the source of a societal and economic disturbance rippling out from Central Asia. The oil is regarded by some as a tradeable commodity, by others as a empirical or spiritual miracle, and by others still – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a origin of malevolence; an affront that must be destroyed. The question of its source, what it stands for, and whether it should be removed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
As in His Dark Materials, our protagonist's deeds, and her fate, are demonstrated to be deeply connected with the future of the universe
In its predecessor, these narratives ran largely in tandem. In this final book, they come together. As in His Dark Materials, her actions and her fate are unveiled to be inseparably entwined with the future of the world. Her private journey to reunite with her soul and regain her creativity becomes the central struggle in a larger conflict with an controlling government which, as such regimes typically do, is striving to suppress freedom of thinking, creativity and expression: all the inner, rebellious ways in which people can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The book begins with the unveiling of a set of curious cracks in the fabric of the Earth's sky: windows that look to lead to alternate realities. An example of a opening manifests to be the source of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The church, with Delamare at its leadership, classifies these portals as a challenge to the religion's beliefs and sets out to destroy them. As Lyra begins to turn away from strict logic and revert to instinct, yet, her conviction that these places must be protected – that their significance and their value is somehow vital – strengthens. "The substance, or the extract, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a philosophical struggle between naivety and experience is set.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
