Things are falling apart in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a world that appears, in this volume especially, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along new and troubling lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from states, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of corporations, the control of crowds. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his post in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and solid are faltering and failing."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that drives The Rose Field, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's concluding excursion into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling world he first introduced in the distant past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose terrain aligns with that of this world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the individuals look and think and behave like us, but are paired by animal souls, souls in creature form; where the skies are populated with enchantresses and gryphons, but underneath, vehicles are taken and beverages is consumed, and mature scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the prequel, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still distinctly the sharp and determined protagonist of the previous installments, but more mature, more sorrowful, more cautious, less sure. This restraint is heightened by her division from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that innocent part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an quality which he represents as her "imagination"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with amazement and risk on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in play, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's masterfully eerie embodiment of rigid, procedural evil – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's relative, who faults her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the position of leader of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is set on using his recently acquired power to broaden the religion's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who saved young Lyra to refuge along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a sideline in espionage: he is assigned to Geneva to find out more about the antagonist's aims. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and precious rose oil which seems somehow to be the cause of a social and economic crisis spreading out from the region. The extract is seen by certain groups as a commercial good, by others as a scientific or mystical phenomenon, and by others still – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of malevolence; an insult that must be obliterated. The dilemma of where it comes from, what it stands for, and whether it should be removed or preserved is becoming urgent.
As in the original trilogy, the heroine's deeds, and her future, are revealed to be inextricably connected with the destiny of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran mostly in parallel. In the conclusion, they come together. Similar to the original series, her actions and her destiny are revealed to be deeply linked with the destiny of the world. Her private mission to rejoin with her soul and recover her imagination becomes the primary struggle in a broader battle with an controlling government which, as such authorities often attempt, is seeking to quell independence of thought, creativity and art: all the personal, defiant ways in which humans can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The book starts with the finding of a series of strange cracks in the structure of the world's atmosphere: gateways that seem to give on to different dimensions. A particular opening appears to be the point of the much debated mystical extract. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its helm, classifies these portals as a problem to the institution's beliefs and aims to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from strict reason and revert to intuition, however, her belief that these places must be defended – that their meaning and what they offer is in some way crucial – grows. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a poetic tussle between innocence and experience is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
