Things are falling apart in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that manifests, in this volume especially, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from governments, and accumulating in the chambers of religious leaders, the vaults of conglomerates, the control of rioters. "An element is at work, very quietly, gradually", says trader a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and durable are faltering and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that drives this final volume, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, according to many, the author's last foray into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting world he first revealed in the distant past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose terrain aligns with that of the real world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and think and behave like us, but are joined by external spirits, souls in beast form; where the air are filled with witches and mythical beasts, but below, transports are caught and beverages is sipped, and mature academics carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the first volume, the origin story with which Pullman began the series, is now a adult: still distinctly the sharp and determined protagonist of the previous installments, but aged, melancholic, warier, less sure. This restraint is intensified by her separation from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to depart in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she may have forgotten (an quality which he represents as her "imagination"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which chronicled Lyra undertake a wandering journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with amazement and peril on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister embodiment of austere, bureaucratic wickedness – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who blames her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the position of head of the church's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his recently acquired influence to extend the religion's control. Malcolm Polstead, who carried baby the heroine to safety along a overflowing Thames as an young boy in the first book, is now an academic with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to the city to discover more about his intentions. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which seems in some way to be the source of a societal and financial upheaval spreading out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by certain groups as a commercial product, by others as a empirical or mystical wonder, and by further factions – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of evil; an challenge that must be obliterated. The issue of where it comes from, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or preserved is becoming urgent.
Similar to the first series, the heroine's deeds, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inextricably connected with the destiny of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran broadly in tandem. In the conclusion, they merge. Like the original series, her choices and her fate are unveiled to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the realm. Her individual quest to rejoin with her daemon and recover her creativity becomes the central conflict in a broader battle with an controlling system which, as such authorities often attempt, is attempting to suppress freedom of reason, creativity and culture: all the personal, defiant ways in which humans can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The novel opens with the finding of a set of curious fissures in the makeup of the planet's air: portals that appear to open into different dimensions. One such opening appears to be the origin of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its leadership, labels these openings as a threat to the church's beliefs and aims to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to move from inflexible logic and revert to feeling, however, her belief that these places must be preserved – that their significance and what they offer is somehow crucial – grows. "Dust, or rose oil, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a poetic tussle between purity and knowledge is established.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
