Things are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a world that appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from authorities, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the control of mobs. "Some force is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and durable are weakening and failing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Precisely what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that drives this final volume, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's concluding foray into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating universe he first introduced in the distant past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose landscape aligns with that of our world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, souls in animal form; where the skies are filled with witches and gryphons, but underneath, vehicles are caught and tea is sipped, and middle-aged professors carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the prequel, the introductory book with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still recognisably the sharp and tenacious heroine of the prior volumes, but more mature, sadder, more careful, less certain. This limitation is heightened by her separation from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to leave in search of that youthful part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an trait which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a wandering trek across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and peril on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the faith's ruling body, and the author's deliciously chilling incarnation of austere, administrative evil – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. The antagonist – the heroine's relative, who blames her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the position of head of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is set on using his fresh influence to broaden the religion's dominium. Another protagonist, who saved infant the heroine to refuge along a swollen Thames as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in intelligence work: he is sent to a key location to find out more about his intentions. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and valuable essential oil which appears in some way to be the origin of a social and economic disturbance emanating out from Central Asia. The substance is seen by certain groups as a tradeable commodity, by others as a research-based or esoteric miracle, and by further factions – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a source of malevolence; an affront that must be eradicated. The issue of where it comes from, its meaning, and whether it should be destroyed or protected is escalating in importance.
Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's decisions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inseparably entwined with the future of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran largely in side by side. In this final book, they converge. Like His Dark Materials, her movements and her fate are shown to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the realm. Her personal journey to reconnect with her companion and recover her vision becomes the central battleground in a wider battle with an oppressive government which, as these systems always have, is striving to suppress freedom of reason, creativity and expression: all the inner, rebellious ways in which people can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The book begins with the discovery of a series of curious cracks in the structure of the planet's air: windows that look to lead to other worlds. A particular window manifests to be the source of the much debated mystical extract. The Magisterium, with its leader at its helm, classifies these openings as a challenge to the church's beliefs and aims to destroy them. As the heroine begins to shift from inflexible reason and revert to intuition, nevertheless, her belief that these sites must be defended – that what they stand for and what they offer is in some way vital – strengthens. "Dust, or rose oil, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a Blakean tussle between innocence and maturity is established.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
