Tings are collapsing in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that appears, in this volume especially, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is draining from authorities, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the vaults of business empires, the control of crowds. "Something is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says merchant a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and strong are faltering and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Precisely what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that animates this final volume, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding foray into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting realm he first revealed in the distant past, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose terrain aligns with that of the real world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, beings in creature form; where the air are teeming with witches and legendary creatures, but below, vehicles are caught and beverages is drunk, and mature scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still clearly the prickly and determined main character of the earlier books, but more mature, more sorrowful, warier, less sure. This limitation is amplified by her split from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to go off in search of that youthful part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an quality which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with amazement and peril on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the faith's ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister incarnation of strict, administrative evil – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's relative, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of leader of the church's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound authority to broaden the church's rule. A key character, who carried young Lyra to refuge along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in espionage: he is dispatched to a key location to discover more about his intentions. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and costly rose oil which seems mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and economic disturbance spreading out from Central Asia. The extract is viewed by various factions as a tradeable commodity, by others as a scientific or esoteric phenomenon, and by yet others – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of darkness; an affront that must be obliterated. The question of its origins, what it stands for, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Similar to His Dark Materials, our protagonist's deeds, and her destiny, are revealed to be inseparably linked with the fate of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran broadly in tandem. In the conclusion, they converge. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's movements and her fate are unveiled to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the realm. Her individual mission to rejoin with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the central battleground in a larger battle with an controlling government which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to stifle autonomy of thinking, originality and culture: all the inner, resistant ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The story opens with the discovery of a set of strange fissures in the makeup of the planet's sky: gateways that seem to open into other worlds. A particular portal manifests to be the origin of the highly contested rose oil. The church, with Delamare at its helm, classifies these portals as a problem to the church's beliefs and endeavors to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to move from rigid rationalism and return to feeling, however, her conviction that these sites must be protected – that what they stand for and what they offer is in some way vital – grows. "The substance, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a philosophical conflict between innocence and knowledge is set.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
