Tings are unraveling in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that manifests, in this volume especially, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from authorities, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of corporations, the hands of crowds. "Something is at work, silently, gradually", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and strong are deteriorating and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Precisely what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that drives this final volume, which picks up where the previous book left off. This is, reportedly, the author's final venture into the elaborately built, deeply captivating realm he first revealed three decades past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose terrain maps on to that of this world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, souls in creature form; where the heavens are teeming with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, buses are taken and drinks is sipped, and middle-aged professors carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still clearly the spiky and tenacious protagonist of the earlier books, but aged, more sorrowful, more cautious, less certain. This limitation is amplified by her split from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to go off in quest of that innocent part of her which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he represents as her "vision"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with amazement and peril on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in motion, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's masterfully eerie representation of rigid, procedural wickedness – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. The antagonist – the heroine's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of head of the Magisterium's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound influence to expand the institution's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who carried baby Lyra to security along a overflowing Thames as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a sideline in intelligence work: he is assigned to the city to discover more about his intentions. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and valuable essential oil which manifests mysteriously to be the source of a social and economic crisis emanating out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by various factions as a commercial product, by different parties as a scientific or spiritual wonder, and by others still – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of evil; an affront that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its source, what it stands for, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
As in the first series, Lyra's deeds, and her future, are demonstrated to be deeply entwined with the fate of the world
In its predecessor, these plots ran mostly in parallel. In this final book, they merge. Similar to the original series, the protagonist's choices and her path are unveiled to be inextricably linked with the fate of the universe. Her private mission to rejoin with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the primary battleground in a wider battle with an authoritarian system which, as these systems typically do, is striving to stifle independence of thought, innovation and art: all the internal, resistant ways in which individuals can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The story begins with the discovery of a set of curious openings in the makeup of the Earth's air: gateways that look to give on to alternate realities. One such window appears to be the origin of the highly contested botanical substance. The Magisterium, with its leader at its helm, labels these openings as a problem to the institution's beliefs and aims to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to move from strict reason and return to instinct, however, her belief that these places must be preserved – that their significance and what they provide is mysteriously vital – grows. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or whatever we call it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a poetic struggle between innocence and maturity is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
