Things are collapsing in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that manifests, here more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from states, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the hands of rioters. "Some force is at work, stealthily, gradually", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and solid are weakening and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that animates The Rose Field, which continues where the previous book left off. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's last foray into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling universe he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a world whose geography corresponds to that of our world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and think and act like us, but are joined by daemons, beings in animal form; where the air are filled with sorceresses and gryphons, but underneath, buses are taken and beverages is sipped, and middle-aged academics carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which the author began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the sharp and determined protagonist of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This limitation is amplified by her split from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to go off in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he represents as her "vision"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which followed Lyra undertake a adventurous journey across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with wonder and danger on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in action, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the faith's controlling power, and the author's brilliantly sinister embodiment of strict, administrative wickedness – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – our protagonist's family member, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the role of president of the church's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his fresh power to broaden the church's control. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued infant Lyra to security along a flooded Thames as an young boy in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is assigned to the city to find out more about Delamare's intentions. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and precious essential oil which manifests mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and economic crisis emanating out from the region. The extract is regarded by certain groups as a commercial product, by different parties as a scientific or esoteric wonder, and by yet others – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a source of darkness; an insult that must be obliterated. The issue of its source, its meaning, and whether it should be eliminated or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions, and her future, are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the realm
In the previous volume, these storylines ran mostly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they come together. Like the first trilogy, the protagonist's choices and her destiny are unveiled to be inextricably entwined with the future of the realm. Her private mission to reconnect with her companion and regain her vision becomes the primary battleground in a broader battle with an controlling regime which, as these systems typically do, is striving to quell freedom of thought, innovation and culture: all the personal, defiant ways in which humans can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The book opens with the unveiling of a collection of unusual fissures in the makeup of the planet's sky: gateways that appear to open into other worlds. A particular window seems to be the origin of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its leadership, classifies these windows as a threat to the religion's orthodoxy and endeavors to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to move from strict rationalism and revert to feeling, yet, her certainty that these locations must be defended – that their significance and what they offer is mysteriously essential – increases. "The substance, or the substance, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a philosophical tussle between innocence and maturity is prepared.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
