Things are collapsing in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a universe that appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or restructuring themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from states, and accumulating in the halls of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the control of rioters. "An element is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were stable and solid are weakening and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Just what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that drives this final volume, which continues where the previous book ended. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding venture into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating world he first revealed three decades past, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose landscape maps on to that of our world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and think and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, essences in creature form; where the air are teeming with witches and gryphons, but beneath those skies, transports are taken and tea is drunk, and older academics carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began this trilogy, is now a adult: still recognisably the sharp and determined protagonist of the prior volumes, but more mature, sadder, warier, less sure. This restraint is heightened by her division from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to depart in search of that innocent part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an quality which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with amazement and peril on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in play, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the religious ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of austere, administrative evil – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the role of head of the church's High Council, and is set on using his newfound power to broaden the religion's control. Another protagonist, who rescued infant the heroine to safety along a swollen river as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an academic with a sideline in spycraft: he is dispatched to the city to discover more about the antagonist's intentions. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and costly rose oil which seems somehow to be the cause of a societal and financial crisis emanating out from the region. The oil is viewed by various factions as a marketable commodity, by others as a empirical or esoteric phenomenon, and by further factions – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of darkness; an challenge that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be destroyed or protected is becoming urgent.
Similar to the first series, our protagonist's actions, and her future, are demonstrated to be inseparably entwined with the future of the realm
In its predecessor, these plots ran broadly in parallel. In this final book, they come together. As in the original series, the protagonist's actions and her path are revealed to be deeply entwined with the future of the realm. Her private journey to rejoin with her companion and rediscover her vision becomes the primary struggle in a wider battle with an controlling system which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to suppress autonomy of reason, innovation and culture: all the internal, resistant ways in which humans can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The novel opens with the unveiling of a series of strange openings in the structure of the planet's sky: gateways that seem to give on to different dimensions. An example of a window appears to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The church, with its leader at its helm, classifies these portals as a problem to the religion's doctrine and endeavors to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to shift from inflexible reason and back to feeling, nevertheless, her conviction that these sites must be preserved – that their significance and their value is mysteriously vital – increases. "The substance, or the substance, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a philosophical tussle between naivety and experience is set.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
