Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that manifests, here more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reassembling themselves along novel and troubling lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is draining from states, and pooling in the halls of religious leaders, the vaults of conglomerates, the hands of crowds. "An element is at work, very quietly, gradually", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and strong are faltering and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Just what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that drives the concluding book, which resumes where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's last excursion into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating realm he first revealed 30 years ago, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the people look and think and act like us, but are paired by daemons, souls in creature form; where the skies are populated with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, transports are caught and drinks is consumed, and mature professors carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the sharp and tenacious main character of the previous installments, but aged, more sorrowful, warier, more doubtful. This restraint is intensified by her division from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to depart in quest of that youthful part of her which she may have forgotten (an quality which he represents as her "vision"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with amazement and danger on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in motion, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the religious controlling power, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of rigid, procedural malice – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. The antagonist – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the office of leader of the authority's governing body, and is determined on using his recently acquired power to extend the institution's dominium. Another protagonist, who carried infant the heroine to security along a flooded river as an child in the first book, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is assigned to a key location to learn more about his aims. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and precious essential oil which manifests in some way to be the origin of a societal and economic disturbance spreading out from that area. The substance is viewed by some as a commercial good, by alternate groups as a empirical or spiritual wonder, and by others still – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of malevolence; an insult that must be eradicated. The issue of its origins, what it stands for, and if it should be destroyed or preserved is coming rapidly to the fore.
As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's deeds, and her future, are revealed to be inseparably entwined with the fate of the world
In the previous volume, these narratives ran largely in tandem. In the conclusion, they merge. Similar to the original series, the protagonist's actions and her path are shown to be deeply linked with the destiny of the universe. Her personal quest to reunite with her companion and rediscover her imagination becomes the primary battleground in a wider war with an oppressive government which, as these systems often attempt, is striving to stifle autonomy of thinking, innovation and culture: all the inner, defiant ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The book begins with the discovery of a series of curious fissures in the fabric of the Earth's air: portals that look to give on to alternate realities. One such opening seems to be the origin of the much debated botanical substance. The authority, with the antagonist at its leadership, classifies these portals as a problem to the church's doctrine and endeavors to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to shift from inflexible logic and revert to intuition, nevertheless, her certainty that these places must be defended – that their meaning and their value is mysteriously vital – increases. "Dust, or the extract, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a philosophical conflict between naivety and knowledge is set.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
