Things are falling apart in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a realm that seems, here more than ever, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along new and troubling lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from governments, and pooling in the offices of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the control of rioters. "Some force is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and strong are faltering and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the inquiry that propels the concluding book, which picks up where its predecessor left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final excursion into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating world he first revealed in the distant past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose landscape maps on to that of our world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and think and act like us, but are paired by daemons, beings in beast form; where the air are filled with witches and legendary creatures, but underneath, transports are ridden and tea is sipped, and mature scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the spiky and tenacious main character of the prior volumes, but older, sadder, more careful, less sure. This circumscription is intensified by her separation from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
The daemon's resolve to go off in quest of that childlike part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an quality which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a adventurous journey across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with wonder and risk on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in action, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the religious governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of austere, administrative wickedness – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's uncle, who blames her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the position of president of the church's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his fresh power to expand the religion's rule. Another protagonist, who saved infant the heroine to security along a flooded river as an young boy in the first book, is now an university scholar with a sideline in intelligence work: he is sent to the city to discover more about his intentions. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and valuable botanical extract which manifests in some way to be the origin of a social and economic upheaval rippling out from that area. The extract is regarded by some as a marketable good, by others as a scientific or mystical miracle, and by yet others – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a source of evil; an affront that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its source, its significance, and if it should be removed or preserved is escalating in importance.
Like the first series, Lyra's deeds, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be deeply linked with the fate of the universe
In its predecessor, these storylines ran broadly in tandem. In the conclusion, they come together. As in His Dark Materials, the protagonist's movements and her destiny are revealed to be inextricably woven with the fate of the realm. Her private mission to reconnect with her daemon and rediscover her imagination becomes the key struggle in a wider war with an oppressive government which, as such regimes typically do, is striving to quell autonomy of thinking, innovation and art: all the internal, rebellious ways in which people can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The story starts with the finding of a collection of unusual openings in the fabric of the Earth's sky: portals that look to give on to different dimensions. One such portal manifests to be the origin of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The authority, with the antagonist at its helm, classifies these windows as a threat to the religion's beliefs and aims to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from strict logic and return to instinct, yet, her conviction that these places must be preserved – that their meaning and what they provide is in some way essential – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical struggle between purity and maturity is established.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
