Tings are unraveling in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that seems, in this volume especially, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from governments, and pooling in the chambers of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the hands of crowds. "An element is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an city cafe. "Things we thought were firm and strong are weakening and failing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Precisely what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the inquiry that propels the concluding book, which resumes where its predecessor ended. This is, according to many, the author's concluding venture into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling world he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose terrain aligns with that of this world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are paired by daemons, essences in animal form; where the heavens are teeming with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, vehicles are caught and drinks is drunk, and middle-aged scholars carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a child in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the first volume, the origin story with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still distinctly the spiky and tenacious main character of the earlier books, but older, melancholic, more careful, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her division from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to leave in pursuit of that youthful part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he represents as her "imagination"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a wandering journey across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with marvel and risk on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in motion, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the religious governing authority, and Pullman's masterfully eerie embodiment of strict, bureaucratic wickedness – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's family member, who blames her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of leader of the authority's High Council, and is set on using his recently acquired authority to broaden the institution's rule. A key character, who rescued baby Lyra to refuge along a swollen Thames as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a additional duty in spycraft: he is sent to a key location to learn more about Delamare's aims. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and precious essential oil which seems somehow to be the cause of a social and financial upheaval spreading out from Central Asia. The extract is regarded by some as a commercial product, by different parties as a research-based or spiritual miracle, and by yet others – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a source of evil; an insult that must be destroyed. The issue of where it comes from, its meaning, and if it should be destroyed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like the first series, Lyra's deeds, and her future, are demonstrated to be inextricably entwined with the future of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran mostly in side by side. In this final book, they come together. Like the first trilogy, her movements and her destiny are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the world. Her personal journey to reconnect with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the key conflict in a broader conflict with an authoritarian system which, as such authorities often attempt, is attempting to suppress autonomy of reason, creativity and expression: all the inner, resistant ways in which people can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The book begins with the finding of a series of curious cracks in the fabric of the planet's sky: gateways that appear to lead to alternate realities. One such portal appears to be the point of the highly contested mystical extract. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its helm, designates these windows as a threat to the institution's orthodoxy and sets out to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from inflexible reason and return to intuition, however, her belief that these places must be preserved – that their significance and what they provide is somehow crucial – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical tussle between naivety and maturity is established.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
