Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that appears, here more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along new and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from authorities, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the treasuries of business empires, the hands of crowds. "An element is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and durable are deteriorating and giving way."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Just what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that animates this final volume, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding venture into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling realm he first introduced 30 years ago, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose terrain corresponds to that of the real world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals look and reason and behave like us, but are paired by animal souls, beings in beast form; where the heavens are populated with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, vehicles are caught and drinks is consumed, and mature academics carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still distinctly the sharp and determined main character of the previous installments, but older, melancholic, warier, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her division from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to go off in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which chronicled Lyra undertake a wandering journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with marvel and peril on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in play, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's masterfully eerie embodiment of strict, bureaucratic wickedness – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of head of the authority's High Council, and is set on using his newfound authority to extend the religion's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who saved infant the heroine to safety along a overflowing river as an young boy in the first book, is now an academic with a additional duty in spycraft: he is assigned to a key location to discover more about Delamare's plans. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and costly essential oil which appears somehow to be the cause of a social and economic upheaval spreading out from that area. The oil is regarded by some as a marketable good, by others as a scientific or mystical miracle, and by yet others – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of evil; an insult that must be obliterated. The issue of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Similar to the first series, our protagonist's decisions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be deeply entwined with the fate of the world
In the previous volume, these narratives ran broadly in parallel. In the conclusion, they converge. As in His Dark Materials, her choices and her path are shown to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the universe. Her individual quest to reunite with her soul and regain her vision becomes the central struggle in a broader war with an authoritarian government which, as these systems typically do, is striving to stifle freedom of reason, innovation and culture: all the internal, resistant ways in which humans can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The story starts with the finding of a set of unusual cracks in the makeup of the world's air: gateways that appear to give on to different dimensions. An example of a opening seems to be the source of the highly contested botanical substance. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its head, classifies these portals as a challenge to the institution's orthodoxy and endeavors to destroy them. As Lyra begins to turn away from inflexible logic and revert to instinct, yet, her certainty that these locations must be protected – that what they stand for and their value is mysteriously vital – strengthens. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we label it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a philosophical struggle between innocence and maturity is prepared.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
