Things are collapsing in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a realm that manifests, in this volume especially, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is draining from governments, and accumulating in the halls of religious leaders, the coffers of business empires, the control of crowds. "Some force is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and strong are deteriorating and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Just what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which continues where its predecessor ended. This is, reportedly, the author's final foray into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating world he first introduced in the distant past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography corresponds to that of the real world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, souls in beast form; where the air are populated with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, transports are ridden and drinks is sipped, and older scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the prequel, the origin story with which the author began this trilogy, is now a adult: still recognisably the prickly and determined protagonist of the earlier books, but aged, melancholic, warier, more doubtful. This limitation is intensified by her separation from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to depart in search of that youthful part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and danger on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the faith's ruling body, and Pullman's masterfully eerie incarnation of rigid, administrative malice – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – Lyra's relative, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the role of leader of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his recently acquired influence to expand the church's control. Another protagonist, who saved baby Lyra to security along a flooded Thames as an child in the prequel, is now an academic with a secondary role in spycraft: he is sent to Geneva to find out more about the antagonist's plans. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and costly essential oil which manifests in some way to be the cause of a societal and financial upheaval emanating out from that area. The substance is seen by certain groups as a commercial commodity, by alternate groups as a research-based or mystical wonder, and by yet others – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of evil; an insult that must be destroyed. The dilemma of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be eliminated or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
As in the original trilogy, the heroine's deeds, and her future, are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the future of the realm
In the previous volume, these plots ran broadly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they converge. Like the original series, her actions and her fate are revealed to be inseparably entwined with the destiny of the world. Her private mission to reunite with her soul and regain her vision becomes the key struggle in a larger conflict with an authoritarian system which, as these systems typically do, is striving to quell freedom of reason, innovation and culture: all the personal, defiant ways in which people can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The novel begins with the finding of a series of unusual fissures in the makeup of the planet's air: windows that appear to give on to alternate realities. A particular window seems to be the origin of the much debated mystical extract. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its helm, designates these windows as a threat to the church's doctrine and endeavors to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to shift from strict reason and back to intuition, however, her conviction that these sites must be protected – that their significance and what they offer is in some way crucial – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a Blakean struggle between purity and maturity is established.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
