Things are falling apart in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that manifests, here more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along new and troubling lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from governments, and accumulating in the halls of religious leaders, the treasuries of business empires, the hands of crowds. "Some force is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says trader a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and strong are deteriorating and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Just what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that animates the concluding book, which picks up where the previous book left off. This is, by all accounts, the author's last venture into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling world he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose geography corresponds to that of this world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the humans appear and reason and behave like us, but are accompanied by daemons, essences in beast form; where the heavens are filled with witches and mythical beasts, but below, transports are caught and beverages is consumed, and older professors carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still distinctly the prickly and persistent protagonist of the prior volumes, but more mature, more sorrowful, more cautious, less certain. This circumscription is heightened by her split from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to depart in pursuit of that youthful part of her which she may have forgotten (an trait which he represents as her "creativity"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a adventurous voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with amazement and risk on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in play, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister embodiment of austere, procedural wickedness – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's family member, who blames her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the office of leader of the church's governing body, and is intent on using his newfound authority to extend the religion's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued baby Lyra to refuge along a swollen Thames as an young boy in the first book, is now an university scholar with a sideline in intelligence work: he is dispatched to the city to learn more about Delamare's aims. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and costly rose oil which seems mysteriously to be the source of a societal and economic upheaval emanating out from that area. The extract is regarded by some as a tradeable product, by different parties as a research-based or spiritual phenomenon, and by further factions – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a source of evil; an insult that must be destroyed. The dilemma of where it comes from, its significance, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to the first series, Lyra's decisions, and her fate, are revealed to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the world
In the previous volume, these narratives ran mostly in side by side. In this final book, they come together. Similar to the original series, her movements and her fate are revealed to be deeply linked with the destiny of the universe. Her personal journey to rejoin with her daemon and recover her vision becomes the key conflict in a wider war with an controlling government which, as such authorities often attempt, is seeking to suppress autonomy of thinking, creativity and expression: all the inner, defiant ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The novel opens with the finding of a set of unusual cracks in the structure of the world's atmosphere: portals that appear to lead to other worlds. An example of a opening appears to be the point of the highly contested botanical substance. The church, with Delamare at its helm, labels these openings as a problem to the church's doctrine and aims to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to shift from rigid rationalism and return to intuition, however, her belief that these locations must be defended – that their meaning and their value is somehow crucial – increases. "Dust, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a Blakean conflict between innocence and experience is set.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
