Tings are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that manifests, in this volume especially, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or restructuring themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from states, and pooling in the halls of theocrats, the vaults of corporations, the control of crowds. "Something is at work, silently, very subtly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were secure and durable are faltering and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Precisely what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that drives the concluding book, which resumes where its predecessor ended. This is, reportedly, the author's last foray into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting universe he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a world whose geography aligns with that of this world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and think and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, essences in creature form; where the skies are teeming with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but below, buses are caught and drinks is consumed, and middle-aged scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which the author began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the sharp and tenacious protagonist of the prior volumes, but aged, more sorrowful, more careful, less sure. This restraint is amplified by her separation from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to depart in quest of that innocent part of her which she appears to have shed (an trait which he represents as her "creativity"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a adventurous voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, meeting with amazement and risk on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in action, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the religious governing authority, and Pullman's masterfully eerie embodiment of rigid, procedural malice – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the position of leader of the authority's High Council, and is intent on using his recently acquired power to extend the church's dominium. Another protagonist, who saved infant Lyra to refuge along a swollen Thames as an young boy in the first book, is now an academic with a sideline in espionage: he is dispatched to a key location to find out more about Delamare's intentions. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and valuable essential oil which appears mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and financial upheaval emanating out from Central Asia. The extract is viewed by various factions as a commercial good, by different parties as a research-based or spiritual phenomenon, and by further factions – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a origin of darkness; an insult that must be destroyed. The issue of where it comes from, its meaning, and whether it should be eliminated or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to the original trilogy, our protagonist's deeds, and her fate, are revealed to be inextricably linked with the future of the universe
In the previous volume, these storylines ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they come together. As in the original series, her actions and her destiny are shown to be inseparably woven with the future of the world. Her private journey to rejoin with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the key conflict in a wider battle with an oppressive government which, as these systems always have, is seeking to quell freedom of thinking, innovation and art: all the internal, defiant ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The book starts with the discovery of a set of strange openings in the makeup of the world's air: portals that seem to give on to different dimensions. One such window seems to be the point of the highly contested rose oil. The church, with its leader at its leadership, classifies these portals as a challenge to the church's orthodoxy and aims to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to move from rigid rationalism and revert to intuition, nevertheless, her conviction that these locations must be defended – that their significance and what they provide is in some way crucial – strengthens. "The substance, or the extract, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a poetic conflict between naivety and maturity is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
