Things are collapsing in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that seems, now more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reassembling themselves along new and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from states, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the hands of mobs. "An element is at work, silently, gradually", says businessman a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and durable are deteriorating and giving way."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Just what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that drives this final volume, which picks up where the previous book concluded. This is, according to many, the author's final excursion into the elaborately built, deeply captivating universe he first introduced 30 years ago, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose landscape aligns with that of the real world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the people appear and think and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, souls in creature form; where the heavens are populated with sorceresses and gryphons, but underneath, transports are taken and beverages is sipped, and middle-aged academics carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the spiky and tenacious heroine of the earlier books, but older, melancholic, more careful, more doubtful. This restraint is amplified by her split from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to depart in quest of that childlike part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an quality which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with wonder and danger on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in play, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the church's governing authority, and the author's masterfully eerie incarnation of strict, procedural malice – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the office of leader of the Magisterium's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound authority to expand the religion's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued baby the heroine to security along a overflowing river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a sideline in spycraft: he is sent to the city to find out more about the antagonist's aims. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and costly botanical extract which appears mysteriously to be the source of a social and financial crisis rippling out from Central Asia. The substance is seen by some as a tradeable good, by alternate groups as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by yet others – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a origin of darkness; an challenge that must be destroyed. The dilemma of where it comes from, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is becoming urgent.
Like His Dark Materials, our protagonist's decisions, and her destiny, are shown to be deeply entwined with the fate of the universe
In the previous volume, these plots ran largely in parallel. In the conclusion, they converge. Similar to the original series, Lyra's movements and her fate are shown to be inextricably linked with the fate of the universe. Her private quest to reconnect with her daemon and rediscover her vision becomes the key conflict in a broader conflict with an authoritarian regime which, as these systems often attempt, is seeking to quell freedom of thought, creativity and art: all the internal, defiant ways in which humans can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The book begins with the unveiling of a series of curious fissures in the makeup of the world's atmosphere: gateways that seem to open into different dimensions. An example of a window manifests to be the source of the highly contested rose oil. The Magisterium, with its leader at its head, labels these portals as a challenge to the religion's beliefs and endeavors to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from strict reason and revert to instinct, however, her belief that these places must be protected – that what they stand for and what they offer is in some way vital – strengthens. "Dust, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a philosophical tussle between naivety and experience is set.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
