Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a universe that seems, here more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from governments, and accumulating in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of business empires, the hands of rioters. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Things we thought were firm and durable are weakening and failing."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that drives the concluding book, which picks up where the previous book left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's last venture into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting world he first introduced in the distant past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose terrain corresponds to that of the real world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the people look and think and behave like us, but are joined by external spirits, essences in creature form; where the skies are teeming with witches and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, buses are ridden and beverages is sipped, and older scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a child in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began this trilogy, is now a adult: still distinctly the prickly and persistent main character of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, more careful, less certain. This restraint is intensified 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.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to depart in search of that childlike part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he represents as her "vision"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with marvel and risk on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in play, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the religious governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister incarnation of austere, administrative wickedness – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of leader of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is set on using his newfound power to broaden the religion's control. A key character, who carried young the heroine to safety along a flooded Thames as an child in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is sent to Geneva to learn more about Delamare's plans. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and valuable botanical extract which seems somehow to be the source of a societal and financial upheaval spreading out from that area. The extract is viewed by some as a commercial commodity, by different parties as a scientific or esoteric wonder, and by yet others – the extremist "highland figures" – as a origin of evil; an affront that must be eradicated. The question of its source, its meaning, and whether it should be destroyed or preserved is becoming urgent.
Similar to His Dark Materials, our protagonist's decisions, and her future, are demonstrated to be deeply connected with the future of the world
In the previous volume, these narratives ran broadly in tandem. In the conclusion, they merge. Similar to the original series, Lyra's movements and her path are shown to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the world. Her private quest to reunite with her soul and regain her imagination becomes the primary struggle in a broader war with an controlling regime which, as these systems often attempt, is striving to suppress freedom of reason, innovation and culture: all the internal, resistant ways in which individuals can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The book begins with the discovery of a set of curious cracks in the fabric of the Earth's air: windows that appear to give on to different dimensions. An example of a window manifests to be the point of the much debated mystical extract. The church, with the antagonist at its head, labels these openings as a problem to the church's doctrine and sets out to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to move from rigid reason and revert to instinct, yet, her conviction that these sites must be defended – that what they stand for and what they offer is in some way crucial – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a philosophical struggle between purity and maturity is set.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
