Things are unraveling in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's masterful trilogies set in a universe that manifests, now more than ever, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reassembling themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from states, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the hands of crowds. "Some force is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and durable are deteriorating and failing."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that animates the concluding book, which resumes where the previous book left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding foray into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting realm he first introduced three decades past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose landscape aligns with that of our world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the people look and reason and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, souls in creature form; where the air are filled with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but below, buses are ridden and drinks is sipped, and older scholars carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the first volume, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a adult: still clearly the sharp and persistent protagonist of the earlier books, but older, melancholic, warier, less certain. This circumscription is heightened by her split from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to leave in search of that innocent part of her which she may have forgotten (an quality which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which chronicled Lyra undertake a wandering trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with wonder and danger on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in action, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's masterfully eerie incarnation of austere, bureaucratic malice – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who faults her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of president of the church's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound influence to broaden the institution's dominium. Another protagonist, who rescued infant Lyra to security along a flooded Thames as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in spycraft: he is dispatched to Geneva to find out more about the antagonist's plans. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and precious essential oil which manifests somehow to be the origin of a social and financial crisis rippling out from Central Asia. The oil is viewed by certain groups as a tradeable product, by alternate groups as a empirical or spiritual wonder, and by further factions – the extremist "highland figures" – as a wellspring of darkness; an affront that must be destroyed. The dilemma of its origins, its significance, and if it should be eliminated or protected is becoming urgent.
Like the original trilogy, our protagonist's actions, and her destiny, are shown to be deeply connected with the destiny of the world
In its predecessor, these storylines ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they come together. As in the original series, Lyra's movements and her destiny are shown to be deeply linked with the fate of the world. Her individual mission to reconnect with her companion and regain her vision becomes the key struggle in a larger conflict with an controlling regime which, as such authorities typically do, is attempting to suppress independence of thought, innovation and expression: all the internal, resistant ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The book opens with the finding of a series of curious cracks in the structure of the world's air: gateways that look to lead to other worlds. One such opening manifests to be the source of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The church, with Delamare at its helm, classifies these windows as a problem to the church's beliefs and aims to destroy them. As Lyra begins to shift from rigid reason and back to instinct, yet, her belief that these places must be defended – that what they stand for and what they offer is mysteriously vital – grows. "Dust, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a philosophical struggle between purity and experience is prepared.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
