Tings are unraveling in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a world that seems, in this volume especially, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or restructuring themselves along novel and troubling lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is draining from states, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of conglomerates, the control of rioters. "Some force is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and durable are weakening and failing."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Exactly what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that animates The Rose Field, which picks up where the previous book ended. This is, by all accounts, the author's concluding foray into the elaborately built, deeply captivating realm he first introduced in the distant past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose landscape aligns with that of this world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the humans look and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, essences in animal form; where the heavens are teeming with witches and legendary creatures, but below, buses are caught and tea is sipped, and middle-aged professors carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still distinctly the sharp and determined main character of the earlier books, but aged, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This circumscription is heightened by her division from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to leave in quest of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an trait which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and danger on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the religious governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of rigid, procedural evil – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's relative, who blames her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the position of leader of the authority's High Council, and is intent on using his fresh power to broaden the religion's rule. Another protagonist, who rescued baby Lyra to safety along a overflowing river as an child in the first book, is now an university scholar with a sideline in spycraft: he is sent to the city to find out more about his plans. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and valuable botanical extract which appears somehow to be the source of a social and financial crisis rippling out from Central Asia. The extract is regarded by various factions as a tradeable commodity, by different parties as a scientific or esoteric phenomenon, and by further factions – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a source of evil; an challenge that must be obliterated. The dilemma of where it comes from, its meaning, and if it should be removed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Similar to the original trilogy, Lyra's deeds, and her future, are shown to be deeply entwined with the fate of the realm
In its predecessor, these storylines ran largely in parallel. In the conclusion, they converge. As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's movements and her fate are revealed to be inextricably woven with the destiny of the world. Her individual journey to reconnect with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the key battleground in a larger battle with an authoritarian government which, as such regimes typically do, is seeking to stifle autonomy of thought, creativity and expression: all the inner, defiant ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The novel begins with the unveiling of a set of curious openings in the structure of the planet's sky: portals that seem to give on to other worlds. A particular portal manifests to be the point of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The church, with its leader at its leadership, labels these portals as a threat to the institution's beliefs and sets out to destroy them. As the heroine begins to move from inflexible rationalism and revert to feeling, however, her conviction that these places must be protected – that what they stand for and what they provide is in some way vital – strengthens. "The substance, or the extract, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or whatever we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a poetic conflict between innocence and knowledge is prepared.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
