Tings are unraveling in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a universe that manifests, in this volume especially, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along new and troubling lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from governments, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the hands of mobs. "Some force is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says merchant a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his post in an city cafe. "Things we thought were firm and solid are weakening and failing."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that propels The Rose Field, which picks up where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final venture into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating world he first introduced three decades past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose geography corresponds to that of this world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the people appear and reason and behave like us, but are joined by external spirits, souls in beast form; where the heavens are populated with enchantresses and gryphons, but below, vehicles are taken and beverages is consumed, and older academics carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a child in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the prequel, the introductory book with which Pullman began the series, is now a adult: still recognisably the prickly and persistent protagonist of the prior volumes, but aged, sadder, warier, more doubtful. This restraint is intensified by her division from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to depart in pursuit of that childlike part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an quality which he represents as her "imagination"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous trek across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with wonder and danger on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in motion, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling embodiment of rigid, procedural evil – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the position of leader of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his newfound power to extend the religion's dominium. Another protagonist, who rescued infant Lyra to security along a overflowing river as an child in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is dispatched to Geneva to discover more about the antagonist's intentions. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and precious rose oil which seems somehow to be the origin of a societal and economic upheaval spreading out from Central Asia. The oil is seen by some as a tradeable good, by others as a empirical or spiritual phenomenon, and by others still – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a origin of malevolence; an challenge that must be obliterated. The dilemma of where it comes from, what it stands for, and if it should be removed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
As in the original trilogy, Lyra's decisions, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inseparably connected with the destiny of the world
In the previous volume, these storylines ran largely in parallel. In The Rose Field, they converge. Similar to the original series, Lyra's movements and her path are unveiled to be inextricably linked with the fate of the world. Her private quest to rejoin with her daemon and recover her vision becomes the primary struggle in a broader war with an oppressive regime which, as such authorities typically do, is attempting to stifle freedom of thinking, innovation and art: all the inner, resistant ways in which humans can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The novel starts with the finding of a collection of curious fissures in the structure of the planet's air: portals that look to lead to alternate realities. One such opening manifests to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The Magisterium, with its leader at its helm, designates these openings as a problem to the church's orthodoxy and sets out to destroy them. As the heroine begins to move from strict rationalism and back to feeling, nevertheless, her certainty that these locations must be defended – that their significance and what they offer is mysteriously crucial – increases. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or whatever we label it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a poetic conflict between naivety and knowledge is established.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
