Tings are falling apart in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a universe that manifests, here more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along new and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from governments, and gathering in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the control of crowds. "Something is at work, stealthily, gradually", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and solid are weakening and giving way."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where its predecessor concluded. This is, according to many, the author's last venture into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling universe he first introduced three decades past, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose geography corresponds to that of the real world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, souls in beast form; where the heavens are filled with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but below, vehicles are taken and tea is sipped, and older scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the prequel, the origin story with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the sharp and persistent protagonist of the previous installments, but older, more sorrowful, more careful, more doubtful. This limitation is heightened by her separation from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to depart in pursuit of that childlike part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which chronicled Lyra undertake a adventurous voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with wonder and risk on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in action, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the faith's governing authority, and the author's brilliantly sinister representation of strict, bureaucratic wickedness – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's relative, who blames her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of head of the authority's governing body, and is determined on using his recently acquired influence to extend the institution's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who saved baby Lyra to safety along a swollen river as an young boy in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in intelligence work: he is sent to Geneva to discover more about the antagonist's intentions. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and valuable rose oil which appears mysteriously to be the source of a societal and economic upheaval spreading out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by some as a commercial product, by alternate groups as a research-based or spiritual miracle, and by further factions – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a origin of darkness; an affront that must be obliterated. The question of where it comes from, its significance, and whether it should be removed or protected is escalating in importance.
As in the original trilogy, our protagonist's deeds, and her future, are shown to be deeply connected with the fate of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran broadly in side by side. In the conclusion, they merge. Similar to the original series, Lyra's actions and her path are revealed to be inseparably entwined with the fate of the realm. Her personal mission to reunite with her companion and regain her vision becomes the key struggle in a broader conflict with an oppressive regime which, as these systems always have, is striving to stifle freedom of thought, innovation and culture: all the personal, defiant ways in which individuals can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The book starts with the finding of a set of unusual openings in the fabric of the Earth's air: windows that appear to give on to different dimensions. An example of a portal seems to be the source of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The authority, with the antagonist at its head, classifies these openings as a threat to the religion's beliefs and endeavors to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to move from inflexible reason and back to feeling, yet, her conviction that these locations must be preserved – that their significance and their value is mysteriously crucial – strengthens. "The substance, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a poetic struggle between purity and maturity is prepared.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
