Things are falling apart in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a realm that manifests, now more than ever, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from governments, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the treasuries of corporations, the control of crowds. "Something is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and durable are weakening and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Just what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that animates this final volume, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's last excursion into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling universe he first introduced three decades past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose geography maps on to that of our world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, essences in creature form; where the air are teeming with enchantresses and gryphons, but below, vehicles are caught and beverages is consumed, and mature academics carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the first volume, the introductory book with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still clearly the prickly and determined main character of the previous installments, but older, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This limitation is amplified by her division from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that youthful part of her which she may have forgotten (an quality which he represents as her "imagination"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a wandering journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and peril on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of rigid, administrative malice – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's family member, who blames her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the position of leader of the Magisterium's High Council, and is intent on using his recently acquired authority to expand the religion's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who saved baby the heroine to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an child in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a sideline in spycraft: he is dispatched to a key location to discover more about Delamare's plans. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and precious rose oil which seems somehow to be the source of a societal and financial upheaval rippling out from that area. The extract is regarded by various factions as a tradeable good, by others as a research-based or spiritual wonder, and by yet others – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a origin of evil; an challenge that must be eradicated. The issue of its source, its significance, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like His Dark Materials, the heroine's deeds, and her future, are shown to be deeply linked with the destiny of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran mostly in tandem. In this final book, they converge. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's movements and her destiny are unveiled to be inseparably entwined with the fate of the universe. Her personal quest to reconnect with her daemon and rediscover her creativity becomes the key conflict in a larger battle with an authoritarian regime which, as these systems always have, is attempting to quell autonomy of thinking, originality and culture: all the inner, rebellious ways in which people can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The novel starts with the finding of a set of unusual cracks in the structure of the world's atmosphere: portals that appear to give on to alternate realities. A particular portal appears to be the source of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The authority, with the antagonist at its helm, designates these openings as a problem to the institution's doctrine and sets out to destroy them. As Lyra begins to move from inflexible reason and revert to feeling, nevertheless, her belief that these places must be preserved – that their significance and their value is somehow crucial – grows. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a Blakean tussle between purity and experience is established.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
