Things are collapsing in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a realm that manifests, here more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is draining from states, and accumulating in the offices of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the grasp of mobs. "Some force is at work, stealthily, gradually", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and strong are deteriorating and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Just what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that animates the concluding book, which continues where its predecessor concluded. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding venture into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling universe he first introduced in the distant past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose geography aligns with that of the real world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the individuals look and think and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, essences in animal form; where the air are populated with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, transports are caught and tea is sipped, and middle-aged academics carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still distinctly the spiky and persistent protagonist of the earlier books, but aged, sadder, more careful, less certain. This limitation is intensified by her division from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to depart in quest of that childlike part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an trait which he represents as her "creativity"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which saw the protagonist undertake a adventurous journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with amazement and risk on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of strict, bureaucratic wickedness – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's uncle, who faults her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the role of head of the authority's High Council, and is intent on using his newfound authority to expand the religion's dominium. Another protagonist, who carried young Lyra to security along a swollen Thames as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in spycraft: he is assigned to the city to find out more about his intentions. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and precious botanical extract which manifests in some way to be the source of a social and economic upheaval emanating out from that area. The extract is seen by various factions as a marketable good, by different parties as a research-based or spiritual miracle, and by further factions – the extremist "highland figures" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an insult that must be obliterated. The question of its source, its significance, and if it should be destroyed or protected is becoming urgent.
As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions, and her fate, are revealed to be deeply entwined with the future of the world
In its predecessor, these storylines ran largely in parallel. In The Rose Field, they come together. Like the original series, her choices and her destiny are shown to be inextricably woven with the fate of the realm. Her personal journey to reunite with her companion and regain her vision becomes the primary struggle in a broader war with an oppressive government which, as such authorities often attempt, is seeking to quell autonomy of reason, creativity and art: all the inner, rebellious ways in which individuals can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The story begins with the unveiling of a collection of curious openings in the fabric of the planet's air: gateways that appear to give on to other worlds. One such opening seems to be the point of the much debated botanical substance. The authority, with Delamare at its head, designates these openings as a problem to the church's doctrine and sets out to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from strict rationalism and return to intuition, nevertheless, her belief that these locations must be defended – that their meaning and what they offer is mysteriously crucial – increases. "The substance, or the substance, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a poetic conflict between naivety and experience is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
