Things are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a realm that seems, in this volume especially, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is draining from authorities, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of business empires, the control of mobs. "Something is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and solid are weakening and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that drives The Rose Field, which continues where its predecessor ended. This is, reportedly, the author's final venture into the elaborately built, deeply captivating realm he first revealed three decades past, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a world whose terrain aligns with that of our world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the people look and reason and behave like us, but are paired by animal souls, essences in beast form; where the air are teeming with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, buses are ridden and drinks is drunk, and mature professors carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the prequel, the introductory book with which Pullman began the series, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the prickly and persistent protagonist of the prior volumes, but older, sadder, warier, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her division from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
The daemon's resolve to go off in quest of that youthful part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an quality which he represents as her "vision"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with marvel and danger on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in action, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of rigid, administrative malice – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's relative, who blames her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the office of head of the church's High Council, and is set on using his recently acquired power to extend the church's control. A key character, who carried infant the heroine to refuge along a swollen river as an young boy in the first book, is now an academic with a secondary role in espionage: he is dispatched to Geneva to discover more about Delamare's intentions. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and precious essential oil which manifests mysteriously to be the source of a societal and economic upheaval emanating out from Central Asia. The oil is regarded by various factions as a marketable good, by alternate groups as a scientific or mystical phenomenon, and by further factions – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a origin of darkness; an challenge that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its source, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or preserved is escalating in importance.
Similar to the first series, Lyra's decisions, and her destiny, are shown to be inseparably linked with the fate of the realm
In its predecessor, these plots ran largely in tandem. In The Rose Field, they merge. As in His Dark Materials, the protagonist's actions and her fate are unveiled to be inextricably woven with the fate of the world. Her personal quest to reunite with her daemon and regain her vision becomes the key battleground in a broader battle with an oppressive system which, as such regimes always have, is striving to suppress autonomy of reason, innovation and art: all the personal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The story begins with the unveiling of a set of strange fissures in the structure of the planet's sky: gateways that seem to lead to different dimensions. One such portal appears to be the point of the much debated botanical substance. The church, with the antagonist at its leadership, designates these windows as a challenge to the church's orthodoxy and sets out to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to move from inflexible logic and revert to instinct, nevertheless, her belief that these locations must be defended – that their meaning and what they provide is mysteriously vital – increases. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a poetic tussle between purity and maturity is prepared.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
