Things are unraveling in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or restructuring themselves along new and troubling lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from authorities, and accumulating in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the grasp of mobs. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and solid are deteriorating and failing."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that propels the concluding book, which picks up where the previous book left off. This is, according to many, the author's last excursion into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting realm he first introduced 30 years ago, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose geography maps on to that of this world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and reason and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, beings in creature form; where the skies are populated with witches and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, buses are ridden and tea is drunk, and older academics carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the prequel, the origin story with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still clearly the prickly and persistent protagonist of the previous installments, but more mature, more sorrowful, more careful, less sure. This circumscription is intensified by her division from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to leave in pursuit of that childlike part of her which she seems to have lost (an trait which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with marvel and risk on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in action, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the religious ruling body, and Pullman's masterfully eerie incarnation of austere, administrative evil – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's relative, who blames her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of head of the Magisterium's High Council, and is intent on using his newfound power to expand the church's dominium. A key character, who rescued baby Lyra to refuge along a flooded river as an child in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is dispatched to the city to discover more about his intentions. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and costly essential oil which appears in some way to be the origin of a societal and financial upheaval spreading out from Central Asia. The extract is viewed by various factions as a commercial product, by different parties as a scientific or mystical miracle, and by others still – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of darkness; an affront that must be obliterated. The dilemma of where it comes from, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is escalating in importance.
Similar to His Dark Materials, our protagonist's deeds, and her destiny, are shown to be inseparably connected with the fate of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran mostly in side by side. In this final book, they come together. Like the first trilogy, Lyra's movements and her path are revealed to be inseparably entwined with the fate of the universe. Her individual journey to rejoin with her daemon and rediscover her imagination becomes the primary battleground in a larger war with an oppressive system which, as such regimes often attempt, is attempting to stifle freedom of thinking, innovation and art: all the inner, resistant ways in which humans can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The story opens with the finding of a collection of curious fissures in the structure of the world's sky: portals that appear to give on to alternate realities. An example of a opening appears to be the point of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The authority, with the antagonist at its leadership, classifies these openings as a problem to the religion's doctrine and sets out to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from inflexible logic and revert to feeling, nevertheless, her belief that these locations must be protected – that their meaning and what they provide is in some way crucial – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a Blakean struggle between purity and maturity is prepared.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
