Tings are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that appears, in this volume especially, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Institutions are failing, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from governments, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the vaults of corporations, the hands of mobs. "An element is at work, silently, gradually", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and durable are faltering and giving way."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that drives this final volume, which picks up where the previous book left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final foray into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting world he first introduced 30 years ago, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose geography aligns with that of our world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and think and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, beings in beast form; where the skies are filled with sorceresses and gryphons, but beneath those skies, buses are taken and tea is sipped, and middle-aged professors carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the prickly and persistent heroine of the previous installments, but more mature, more sorrowful, warier, less certain. This circumscription is intensified by her division from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to go off in quest of that youthful part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an trait which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a adventurous voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and peril on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in motion, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the church's controlling power, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister incarnation of austere, procedural wickedness – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who faults her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the position of head of the church's High Council, and is set on using his fresh influence to extend the religion's control. Another protagonist, who saved infant Lyra to safety along a overflowing Thames as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a sideline in intelligence work: he is assigned to Geneva to discover more about Delamare's aims. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and precious botanical extract which manifests mysteriously to be the source of a societal and financial disturbance emanating out from Central Asia. The extract is regarded by some as a marketable product, by others as a empirical or esoteric wonder, and by yet others – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a source of evil; an affront that must be destroyed. The dilemma of its origins, its significance, and if it should be destroyed or preserved is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to the first series, our protagonist's actions, and her destiny, are shown to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran largely in parallel. In the conclusion, they converge. Like the original series, her actions and her destiny are shown to be inextricably linked with the future of the world. Her private quest to rejoin with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the key battleground in a wider conflict with an oppressive system which, as such authorities always have, is striving to stifle autonomy of thinking, innovation and expression: all the internal, rebellious ways in which people can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The book begins with the finding of a series of curious fissures in the structure of the Earth's atmosphere: gateways that appear to give on to other worlds. An example of a opening appears to be the point of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The church, with the antagonist at its helm, labels these openings as a threat to the institution's doctrine and endeavors to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from strict logic and return to instinct, yet, her certainty that these locations must be protected – that their meaning and what they provide is somehow vital – strengthens. "Dust, or the substance, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a poetic conflict between purity and knowledge is established.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
