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 manifests, here more than ever, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along new and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from states, and accumulating in the chambers of religious leaders, the treasuries of corporations, the hands of mobs. "Something is at work, silently, gradually", says businessman a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were secure and strong are faltering and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Exactly what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that animates this final volume, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, reportedly, Pullman's concluding venture into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating world he first unveiled in the distant past, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and think and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, essences in creature form; where the skies are populated with sorceresses and gryphons, but beneath those skies, transports are ridden and beverages is drunk, and middle-aged academics carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a child in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the first volume, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the sharp and tenacious main character of the earlier books, but more mature, sadder, more careful, more doubtful. This limitation is heightened by her division from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to leave in search of that childlike part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he represents as her "imagination"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which followed Lyra undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with amazement and danger on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in play, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of austere, bureaucratic evil – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's uncle, who faults her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the role of head of the authority's High Council, and is intent on using his newfound authority to expand the religion's dominium. A key character, who saved young Lyra to refuge along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in intelligence work: he is dispatched to the city to learn more about his plans. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and costly essential oil which appears somehow to be the source of a social and financial upheaval emanating out from that area. The substance is seen by various factions as a tradeable product, by alternate groups as a empirical or spiritual wonder, and by others still – the zealous "highland figures" – as a origin of evil; an insult that must be obliterated. The question of where it comes from, its significance, and if it should be eliminated or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Similar to the original trilogy, the heroine's decisions, and her destiny, are shown to be inseparably entwined with the fate of the world
In its predecessor, these plots ran largely in side by side. In the conclusion, they merge. Like the original series, Lyra's actions and her destiny are revealed to be inseparably entwined with the destiny of the realm. Her private mission to reconnect with her soul and recover her imagination becomes the primary battleground in a broader war with an authoritarian government which, as these systems always have, is attempting to stifle freedom of thought, innovation and art: all the inner, defiant ways in which people can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The book opens with the discovery of a series of curious cracks in the structure of the world's air: portals that look to lead to different dimensions. A particular portal seems to be the source of the much debated mystical extract. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its helm, labels these windows as a threat to the religion's orthodoxy and aims to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from rigid rationalism and return to feeling, yet, her conviction that these sites must be defended – that what they stand for and what they provide is somehow vital – grows. "Dust, or the substance, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a philosophical struggle between purity and experience is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
