Things are unraveling in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that manifests, in this volume especially, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reorganizing themselves along new and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is draining from authorities, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the vaults of conglomerates, the grasp of rioters. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and solid are weakening and collapsing."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that drives The Rose Field, which continues where its predecessor ended. This is, by all accounts, the author's last venture into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating universe he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose landscape aligns with that of the real world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, souls in creature form; where the air are filled with witches and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, buses are taken and beverages is consumed, and mature professors carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still clearly the prickly and determined main character of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This circumscription is heightened by her division from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to leave in search of that innocent part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an trait which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with wonder and danger on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the faith's ruling body, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister embodiment of rigid, administrative malice – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's family member, who blames her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the position of head of the Magisterium's High Council, and is intent on using his recently acquired power to broaden the church's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who carried infant Lyra to security along a flooded river as an young boy in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in spycraft: he is dispatched to Geneva to discover more about his intentions. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and costly rose oil which manifests in some way to be the source of a social and financial upheaval rippling out from that area. The extract is seen by certain groups as a tradeable product, by different parties as a research-based or spiritual phenomenon, and by yet others – the zealous "highland figures" – as a wellspring of evil; an insult that must be destroyed. The issue of its source, what it stands for, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Similar to the original trilogy, our protagonist's actions, and her destiny, are revealed to be inseparably entwined with the future of the realm
In the previous volume, these storylines ran mostly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they come together. Like the original series, the protagonist's movements and her fate are shown to be deeply entwined with the future of the realm. Her personal mission to reconnect with her companion and regain her vision becomes the key struggle in a broader war with an controlling government which, as these systems typically do, is seeking to stifle freedom of thought, creativity and art: all the internal, resistant ways in which humans can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The novel begins with the finding of a series of strange openings in the structure of the Earth's atmosphere: gateways that look to give on to different dimensions. An example of a window manifests to be the source of the much debated mystical extract. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its leadership, classifies these openings as a threat to the church's beliefs and endeavors to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from strict logic and return to intuition, however, her certainty that these sites must be defended – that what they stand for and what they provide is mysteriously essential – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a poetic struggle between innocence and knowledge is established.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
