Things are falling apart in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a world that appears, here more than ever, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along new and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is draining from authorities, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of business empires, the control of crowds. "An element is at work, very quietly, gradually", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an city cafe. "Things we thought were secure and strong are deteriorating and failing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Just what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that drives the concluding book, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's final venture into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling realm he first introduced in the distant past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a world whose landscape aligns with that of the real world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the people appear and reason and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, essences in animal form; where the skies are filled with enchantresses and gryphons, but below, buses are ridden and tea is drunk, and mature scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the prequel, the origin story with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still recognisably the sharp and determined heroine of the prior volumes, but aged, more sorrowful, more cautious, less certain. This restraint is heightened by her division from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to go off in search of that youthful part of her which she seems to have lost (an trait which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a adventurous trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, meeting with wonder and danger on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in action, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the religious governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling embodiment of rigid, administrative evil – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who blames her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of leader of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his recently acquired influence to broaden the church's dominium. Another protagonist, who carried infant the heroine to safety along a overflowing Thames as an child in the first book, is now an university scholar with a sideline in espionage: he is sent to Geneva to discover more about Delamare's aims. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and precious botanical extract which seems mysteriously to be the source of a social and financial upheaval spreading out from the region. The extract is viewed by various factions as a tradeable good, by alternate groups as a empirical or spiritual miracle, and by further factions – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of evil; an insult that must be obliterated. The issue of its source, its meaning, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions, and her future, are demonstrated to be deeply linked with the destiny of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran mostly in side by side. In the conclusion, they come together. Similar to the original series, the protagonist's choices and her path are unveiled to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the world. Her private journey to reunite with her soul and rediscover her vision becomes the key battleground in a wider conflict with an authoritarian system which, as such authorities often attempt, is seeking to suppress autonomy of thinking, originality and culture: all the personal, rebellious ways in which people can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The story begins with the finding of a series of unusual openings in the fabric of the planet's sky: windows that appear to give on to different dimensions. A particular portal manifests to be the point of the highly contested mystical extract. The authority, with Delamare at its leadership, classifies these windows as a threat to the institution's doctrine and endeavors to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from strict reason and back to feeling, nevertheless, her certainty that these places must be defended – that their meaning and what they offer is somehow vital – increases. "The substance, or the substance, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a philosophical conflict between purity and knowledge is set.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
