Things are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a universe that appears, here more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reassembling themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from governments, and accumulating in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of corporations, the grasp of crowds. "An element is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says merchant a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Things we thought were secure and strong are deteriorating and failing."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that animates The Rose Field, which continues where the previous book concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's final venture into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating universe he first unveiled in the distant past, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose terrain aligns with that of this world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the people appear and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, beings in beast form; where the heavens are populated with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, transports are ridden and tea is drunk, and older professors carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the prequel, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still recognisably the prickly and determined main character of the prior volumes, but more mature, melancholic, warier, less sure. This restraint is amplified by her split from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to go off in search of that innocent part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an trait which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which followed the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and peril on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in play, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the faith's ruling body, and the author's masterfully eerie representation of austere, administrative wickedness – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the position of head of the authority's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound power to expand the church's dominium. Another protagonist, who saved young the heroine to safety along a overflowing river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a sideline in espionage: he is assigned to the city to discover more about Delamare's aims. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and precious essential oil which manifests somehow to be the source of a societal and economic disturbance emanating out from Central Asia. The substance is viewed by various factions as a commercial good, by different parties as a research-based or mystical miracle, and by further factions – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a source of evil; an affront that must be destroyed. The issue of where it comes from, its significance, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to the first series, the heroine's deeds, and her fate, are shown to be deeply connected with the destiny of the universe
In its predecessor, these storylines ran largely in side by side. In the conclusion, they come together. As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's choices and her path are shown to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the world. Her personal quest to reconnect with her soul and rediscover her creativity becomes the central battleground in a broader conflict with an oppressive government which, as these systems always have, is seeking to quell autonomy of thought, originality and art: all the personal, defiant ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The novel begins with the discovery of a collection of unusual fissures in the structure of the planet's air: portals that look to lead to alternate realities. An example of a window appears to be the source of the highly contested botanical substance. The church, with its leader at its helm, labels these windows as a problem to the church's beliefs and endeavors to destroy them. As Lyra begins to shift from inflexible logic and revert to feeling, yet, her belief that these locations must be preserved – that what they stand for and what they provide is mysteriously vital – grows. "The substance, or the substance, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a philosophical conflict between innocence and knowledge is set.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
