Things are collapsing in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a world that seems, here more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from governments, and accumulating in the offices of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the hands of mobs. "An element is at work, stealthily, gradually", says merchant a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and durable are faltering and failing."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Exactly what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that animates this final volume, which continues where its predecessor left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final foray into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling universe he first unveiled in the distant past, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose landscape aligns with that of the real world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the people appear and think and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, souls in beast form; where the heavens are filled with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, vehicles are taken and beverages is consumed, and mature professors carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the prequel, the origin story with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the spiky and determined main character of the prior volumes, but more mature, more sorrowful, more careful, less certain. This restraint is intensified by her split from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to depart in quest of that youthful part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an trait which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which followed Lyra undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with marvel and danger on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister representation of strict, bureaucratic wickedness – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's uncle, who faults her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the office of president of the church's governing body, and is set on using his recently acquired authority to expand the church's control. Malcolm Polstead, who carried infant Lyra to security along a swollen river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a secondary role in espionage: he is dispatched to the city to discover more about Delamare's plans. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and costly essential oil which appears somehow to be the origin of a societal and financial crisis spreading out from Central Asia. The extract is viewed by various factions as a commercial good, by different parties as a scientific or esoteric miracle, and by others still – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a source of darkness; an insult that must be destroyed. The issue of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Like the original trilogy, Lyra's actions, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the realm
In the previous volume, these storylines ran mostly in parallel. In this final book, they come together. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's choices and her path are shown to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the realm. Her personal quest to reunite with her companion and rediscover her vision becomes the central battleground in a broader conflict with an authoritarian system which, as such regimes typically do, is striving to suppress autonomy of thinking, creativity and expression: all the personal, defiant ways in which humans can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The story opens with the unveiling of a collection of strange fissures in the structure of the Earth's atmosphere: gateways that look to give on to different dimensions. A particular window seems to be the point of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The authority, with Delamare at its head, designates these openings as a threat to the church's orthodoxy and endeavors to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from strict logic and revert to instinct, yet, her certainty that these sites must be preserved – that what they stand for and their value is mysteriously crucial – increases. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a Blakean struggle between innocence and maturity is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
