Things are unraveling in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that manifests, now more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along novel and troubling lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from authorities, and pooling in the offices of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the control of mobs. "Some force is at work, silently, very subtly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and solid are deteriorating and giving way."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that propels this final volume, which resumes where the previous book left off. This is, by all accounts, the author's last foray into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting realm he first unveiled in the distant past, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose geography aligns with that of this world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and reason and behave like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, essences in creature form; where the heavens are filled with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, transports are caught and beverages is consumed, and older academics carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the first volume, the origin story with which Pullman began the series, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the prickly and tenacious heroine of the previous installments, but older, melancholic, warier, less certain. This circumscription is heightened by her division from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to leave in pursuit of that innocent part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an trait which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which followed Lyra undertake a picaresque journey across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with marvel and danger on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the faith's ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling embodiment of strict, bureaucratic evil – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who blames her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the role of leader of the authority's ruling assembly, and is set on using his fresh power to extend the institution's rule. A key character, who rescued young Lyra to safety along a flooded river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in espionage: he is dispatched to Geneva to learn more about the antagonist's intentions. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and valuable botanical extract which manifests mysteriously to be the origin of a social and financial crisis emanating out from the region. The extract is viewed by various factions as a marketable commodity, by different parties as a scientific or spiritual wonder, and by others still – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a source of evil; an challenge that must be eradicated. The question of where it comes from, its significance, and whether it should be destroyed or preserved is becoming urgent.
Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's decisions, and her future, are demonstrated to be inextricably linked with the future of the world
In the previous volume, these storylines ran mostly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they come together. As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's movements and her path are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the world. Her personal mission to reconnect with her daemon and rediscover her imagination becomes the primary battleground in a larger war with an controlling regime which, as these systems always have, is striving to stifle autonomy of thought, creativity and culture: all the inner, rebellious ways in which people can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The book opens with the unveiling of a series of unusual openings in the structure of the world's air: windows that seem to open into other worlds. An example of a portal seems to be the point of the much debated rose oil. The church, with Delamare at its helm, labels these windows as a threat to the church's doctrine and endeavors to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from rigid rationalism and back to instinct, yet, her certainty that these locations must be protected – that their meaning and what they provide is mysteriously vital – increases. "Dust, or the extract, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or whatever we label it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a poetic tussle between innocence and maturity is established.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
