Tings are falling apart in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that manifests, in this volume especially, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from states, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of business empires, the control of rioters. "Some force is at work, silently, very subtly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and solid are faltering and failing."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that animates this final volume, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding venture into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting realm he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose landscape corresponds to that of this world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, essences in beast form; where the air are populated with witches and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, vehicles are caught and beverages is consumed, and middle-aged scholars carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the first volume, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the sharp and determined heroine of the previous installments, but aged, more sorrowful, more careful, less sure. This limitation is amplified by her split from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to leave in quest of that innocent part of her which she may have forgotten (an trait which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with amazement and peril on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the religious controlling power, and the author's deliciously chilling incarnation of strict, bureaucratic evil – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who faults her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the position of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his fresh influence to broaden the institution's dominium. Another protagonist, who carried young the heroine to refuge along a swollen river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in spycraft: he is sent to the city to discover more about his aims. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and precious rose oil which seems mysteriously to be the origin of a social and financial disturbance emanating out from that area. The extract is regarded by certain groups as a tradeable good, by alternate groups as a scientific or spiritual wonder, and by yet others – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of darkness; an affront that must be destroyed. The dilemma of where it comes from, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is escalating in importance.
Similar to the original trilogy, our protagonist's decisions, and her destiny, are revealed to be inseparably connected with the fate of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran mostly in parallel. In the conclusion, they merge. As in the first trilogy, her actions and her fate are unveiled to be deeply entwined with the fate of the universe. Her private mission to rejoin with her companion and recover her imagination becomes the key conflict in a larger war with an authoritarian government which, as these systems typically do, is seeking to stifle autonomy of reason, creativity and culture: all the personal, rebellious ways in which humans can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The story opens with the unveiling of a series of unusual cracks in the makeup of the planet's atmosphere: windows that look to give on to alternate realities. One such window seems to be the point of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The church, with Delamare at its helm, classifies these openings as a challenge to the religion's orthodoxy and endeavors to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from inflexible rationalism and back to intuition, nevertheless, her belief that these sites must be preserved – that what they stand for and what they offer is in some way crucial – strengthens. "The substance, or the substance, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a philosophical struggle between purity and knowledge is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
