Things are falling apart in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that seems, here more than ever, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along novel and troubling lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the coffers of business empires, the control of crowds. "Something is at work, stealthily, gradually", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and solid are faltering and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that propels the concluding book, which resumes where the previous book concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's last venture into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling universe he first introduced in the distant past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose landscape aligns with that of this world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the people look and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, beings in beast form; where the skies are filled with enchantresses and gryphons, but below, transports are taken and tea is consumed, and middle-aged academics carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still clearly the spiky and persistent main character of the prior volumes, but aged, melancholic, warier, less certain. This limitation is heightened by her separation from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to go off in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she may have forgotten (an trait which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with wonder and danger on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the church's governing authority, and the author's masterfully eerie incarnation of rigid, procedural wickedness – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. The antagonist – the heroine's relative, who blames her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of leader of the church's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his recently acquired influence to extend the religion's control. A key character, who saved young Lyra to refuge along a overflowing river as an child in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in spycraft: he is assigned to the city to learn more about his aims. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and costly essential oil which manifests mysteriously to be the source of a societal and financial upheaval spreading out from that area. The oil is viewed by some as a marketable commodity, by others as a research-based or esoteric wonder, and by others still – the zealous "highland figures" – as a source of evil; an challenge that must be destroyed. The question of its origins, its significance, and if it should be eliminated or protected is becoming urgent.
Similar to the first series, our protagonist's deeds, and her destiny, are revealed to be deeply linked with the fate of the world
In the previous volume, these storylines ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they come together. Similar to the original series, the protagonist's movements and her path are unveiled to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the world. Her private quest to reconnect with her soul and regain her creativity becomes the central conflict in a broader conflict with an controlling system which, as such regimes typically do, is seeking to stifle autonomy of thought, innovation and culture: all the personal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The book starts with the finding of a set of unusual openings in the makeup of the world's atmosphere: windows that look to give on to other worlds. A particular window seems to be the origin of the highly contested rose oil. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its helm, labels these openings as a challenge to the church's beliefs and endeavors to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to move from rigid logic and back to feeling, yet, her certainty that these sites must be defended – that their meaning and their value is mysteriously crucial – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a poetic struggle between innocence and knowledge is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
