Things are falling apart in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a realm that manifests, now more than ever, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or reassembling themselves along new and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is draining from governments, and accumulating in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of corporations, the control of crowds. "Something is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and solid are faltering and giving way."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Just what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that animates this final volume, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, according to many, Pullman's final excursion into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating world he first revealed in the distant past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose geography corresponds to that of our world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals look and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, souls in beast form; where the skies are populated with witches and gryphons, but beneath those skies, vehicles are caught and drinks is drunk, and mature academics carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still clearly the prickly and tenacious heroine of the earlier books, but more mature, melancholic, more cautious, less sure. This restraint is amplified by her split from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
The daemon's resolve to depart in search of that childlike part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an quality which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and danger on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the church's governing authority, and the author's brilliantly sinister incarnation of rigid, procedural wickedness – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's uncle, who faults her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of head of the church's governing body, and is set on using his newfound power to extend the institution's dominium. Another protagonist, who rescued baby the heroine to safety along a swollen Thames as an child in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is dispatched to a key location to discover more about his plans. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which manifests in some way to be the origin of a societal and financial disturbance rippling out from that area. The substance is seen by certain groups as a tradeable product, by different parties as a empirical or mystical miracle, and by others still – the zealous "highland figures" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an affront that must be obliterated. The issue of its source, its significance, and whether it should be eliminated or preserved is escalating in importance.
Like the original trilogy, our protagonist's actions, and her future, are shown to be inextricably entwined with the future of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they come together. As in the original series, Lyra's movements and her destiny are revealed to be deeply entwined with the fate of the world. Her individual journey to reunite with her companion and rediscover her imagination becomes the central conflict in a larger battle with an controlling system which, as such authorities often attempt, is attempting to suppress freedom of thought, creativity and expression: all the internal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The novel begins with the unveiling of a series of strange cracks in the fabric of the planet's air: portals that look to open into alternate realities. A particular portal appears to be the source of the much debated mystical extract. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its head, designates these windows as a threat to the institution's beliefs and sets out to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to shift from rigid rationalism and return to feeling, yet, her certainty that these sites must be defended – that their meaning and what they offer is mysteriously crucial – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a poetic struggle between purity and experience is established.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
