Things are collapsing in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that manifests, here more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is draining from authorities, and accumulating in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of conglomerates, the hands of crowds. "Something is at work, silently, very subtly", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and durable are deteriorating and failing."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where the previous book left off. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding foray into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting realm he first revealed in the distant past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a world whose geography aligns with that of this world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the individuals look and reason and act like us, but are joined by daemons, beings in beast form; where the skies are teeming with witches and gryphons, but underneath, vehicles are caught and drinks is consumed, and middle-aged academics carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still distinctly the sharp and tenacious main character of the earlier books, but older, sadder, warier, more doubtful. This circumscription is amplified by her split from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to depart in search of that innocent part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an quality which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and risk on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in action, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister representation of strict, administrative evil – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's uncle, who blames her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of president of the church's governing body, and is determined on using his fresh authority to extend the church's control. Another protagonist, who saved infant the heroine to security along a overflowing river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in espionage: he is sent to a key location to learn more about Delamare's intentions. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and costly essential oil which manifests somehow to be the source of a societal and financial crisis rippling out from the region. The extract is seen by some as a tradeable product, by alternate groups as a research-based or mystical wonder, and by yet others – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of darkness; an affront that must be destroyed. The issue of where it comes from, what it stands for, and whether it should be eliminated or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
As in the first series, our protagonist's deeds, and her destiny, are shown to be inseparably entwined with the fate of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran broadly in parallel. In the conclusion, they merge. Similar to the first trilogy, the protagonist's actions and her destiny are unveiled to be inseparably entwined with the future of the world. Her personal mission to reconnect with her daemon and recover her imagination becomes the key battleground in a larger war with an oppressive regime which, as such authorities often attempt, is striving to stifle freedom of thinking, innovation and expression: all the personal, defiant ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The novel begins with the finding of a set of strange cracks in the makeup of the planet's sky: gateways that seem to lead to different dimensions. A particular portal seems to be the origin of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The authority, with Delamare at its helm, designates these openings as a threat to the institution's beliefs and endeavors to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to shift from strict rationalism and back to feeling, nevertheless, her conviction that these locations must be protected – that their significance and what they offer is in some way vital – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or whatever we label it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a philosophical tussle between innocence and maturity is established.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
