Tings are falling apart in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a universe that appears, here more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is draining from authorities, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the coffers of conglomerates, the grasp of crowds. "Some force is at work, very quietly, gradually", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and strong are weakening and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Precisely what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that drives this final volume, which picks up where its predecessor concluded. This is, according to many, Pullman's last venture into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling realm he first revealed 30 years ago, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose landscape maps on to that of this world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the humans appear and think and behave like us, but are joined by daemons, souls in beast form; where the heavens are populated with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, transports are caught and tea is consumed, and middle-aged scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the first volume, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still recognisably the sharp and determined heroine of the previous installments, but older, more sorrowful, warier, more doubtful. This restraint is intensified by her split from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to leave in quest of that childlike part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an quality which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and danger on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the faith's governing authority, and the author's masterfully eerie embodiment of strict, administrative evil – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – the heroine's uncle, who faults her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of leader of the authority's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his recently acquired power to extend the church's dominium. Another protagonist, who saved infant the heroine to safety along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in spycraft: he is assigned to the city to learn more about Delamare's aims. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and valuable rose oil which appears mysteriously to be the source of a societal and economic upheaval rippling out from Central Asia. The extract is viewed by some as a commercial good, by alternate groups as a research-based or esoteric miracle, and by others still – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of darkness; an affront that must be eradicated. The question of where it comes from, its meaning, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
As in the original trilogy, our protagonist's actions, and her fate, are revealed to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the universe
In its predecessor, these storylines ran largely in tandem. In this final book, they come together. Like the original series, her choices and her fate are shown to be inextricably linked with the fate of the universe. Her private quest to rejoin with her soul and rediscover her vision becomes the key conflict in a wider conflict with an authoritarian regime which, as such regimes often attempt, is attempting to quell independence of thinking, originality and culture: all the personal, resistant ways in which people can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The story begins with the finding of a series of strange fissures in the structure of the world's air: gateways that seem to give on to other worlds. A particular opening appears to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its helm, classifies these windows as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and endeavors to destroy them. As Lyra begins to move from rigid logic and return to intuition, nevertheless, her certainty that these locations must be preserved – that their meaning and what they provide is mysteriously crucial – increases. "The substance, or the extract, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or whatever we label it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a philosophical struggle between naivety and experience is set.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
