Things are falling apart in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a realm that appears, here more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from governments, and accumulating in the halls of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the grasp of mobs. "Something is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an city cafe. "Things we thought were secure and solid are faltering and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Exactly what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that drives The Rose Field, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, by all accounts, the author's last excursion into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating realm he first introduced in the distant past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography aligns with that of this world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by daemons, essences in beast form; where the skies are populated with witches and legendary creatures, but below, transports are caught and tea is sipped, and middle-aged professors carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the prickly and determined protagonist of the prior volumes, but older, more sorrowful, warier, more doubtful. This circumscription is amplified by her division from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to leave in quest of that youthful part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an trait which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with amazement and danger on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister incarnation of strict, procedural evil – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's relative, who faults her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the position of president of the church's High Council, and is set on using his fresh authority to extend the church's control. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued baby the heroine to safety along a swollen Thames as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is assigned to the city to discover more about his plans. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and precious botanical extract which appears somehow to be the origin of a societal and economic crisis rippling out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by some as a tradeable good, by alternate groups as a scientific or esoteric miracle, and by yet others – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of malevolence; an insult that must be destroyed. The issue of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be eliminated or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
As in the original trilogy, our protagonist's decisions, and her fate, are shown to be inseparably connected with the future of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran mostly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they come together. As in His Dark Materials, her actions and her destiny are shown to be inseparably woven with the future of the world. Her personal journey to rejoin with her companion and recover her vision becomes the key conflict in a larger battle with an controlling government which, as such authorities often attempt, is striving to stifle freedom of thinking, innovation and culture: all the internal, defiant ways in which individuals can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The story opens with the discovery of a collection of unusual cracks in the structure of the world's sky: portals that seem to lead to different dimensions. A particular portal seems to be the point of the much debated mystical extract. The church, with the antagonist at its helm, labels these windows as a challenge to the institution's beliefs and endeavors to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to move from rigid reason and revert to feeling, however, her certainty that these places must be protected – that their meaning and their value is mysteriously vital – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or whatever we label it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a philosophical tussle between purity and knowledge is prepared.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
