Things are collapsing in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that appears, now more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from authorities, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the grasp of crowds. "Something is at work, stealthily, gradually", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were secure and strong are deteriorating and failing."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that drives the concluding book, which picks up where the previous book ended. This is, according to many, the author's concluding foray into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating realm he first revealed three decades past, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose geography maps on to that of this world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the individuals look and reason and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, essences in creature form; where the air are teeming with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, vehicles are caught and tea is drunk, and middle-aged scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a child in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a adult: still clearly the prickly and tenacious main character of the prior volumes, but older, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is amplified by her split from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that childlike part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an trait which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which followed the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with marvel and risk on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the faith's ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister incarnation of austere, administrative malice – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's family member, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of president of the Magisterium's governing body, and is intent on using his newfound power to extend the church's control. A key character, who saved baby Lyra to security along a flooded Thames as an child in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in spycraft: he is dispatched to the city to find out more about the antagonist's aims. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and costly essential oil which appears mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and financial upheaval spreading out from the region. The substance is seen by certain groups as a tradeable product, by different parties as a empirical or mystical wonder, and by others still – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a origin of evil; an challenge that must be destroyed. The issue of where it comes from, what it stands for, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
As in the first series, Lyra's deeds, and her future, are demonstrated to be deeply connected with the future of the realm
In the previous volume, these narratives ran mostly in tandem. In the conclusion, they come together. Similar to His Dark Materials, her actions and her path are revealed to be inseparably woven with the future of the universe. Her individual journey to reconnect with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the primary conflict in a larger war with an authoritarian government which, as such authorities often attempt, is seeking to stifle independence of thought, originality and art: all the inner, rebellious ways in which people can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The book opens with the unveiling of a set of unusual openings in the fabric of the world's atmosphere: portals that seem to lead to other worlds. A particular portal seems to be the point of the much debated mystical extract. The Magisterium, with its leader at its helm, designates these windows as a threat to the religion's orthodoxy and endeavors to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to shift from rigid logic and back to intuition, yet, her conviction that these locations must be preserved – that their significance and their value is in some way crucial – increases. "The substance, or the substance, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a poetic struggle between innocence and knowledge is established.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
