Things are falling apart in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a world that manifests, now more than ever, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reorganizing themselves along new and troubling lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is draining from authorities, and gathering in the offices of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the grasp of mobs. "An element is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and solid are faltering and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Exactly what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that drives the concluding book, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, according to many, Pullman's last foray into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating universe he first unveiled three decades past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose geography aligns with that of the real world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the people appear and reason and act like us, but are joined by daemons, souls in creature form; where the air are populated with enchantresses and gryphons, but beneath those skies, buses are ridden and tea is drunk, and mature professors carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a child in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which Pullman began the series, is now a adult: still clearly the prickly and determined protagonist of the earlier books, but aged, more sorrowful, warier, less certain. This limitation is heightened by her separation from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to go off in search of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an quality which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which followed Lyra undertake a adventurous trek across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and danger on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the religious controlling power, and the author's masterfully eerie incarnation of strict, administrative wickedness – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's family member, who blames her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the office of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his newfound authority to broaden the institution's rule. A key character, who carried young Lyra to safety along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is assigned to the city to find out more about Delamare's plans. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and costly rose oil which manifests in some way to be the origin of a societal and financial disturbance spreading out from the region. The substance is viewed by some as a commercial good, by others as a research-based or spiritual miracle, and by further factions – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of evil; an affront that must be destroyed. The question of its origins, what it stands for, and whether it should be eliminated or preserved is escalating in importance.
Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's deeds, and her future, are demonstrated to be inseparably entwined with the destiny of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran mostly in side by side. In this final book, they converge. Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's choices and her fate are revealed to be deeply linked with the destiny of the world. Her personal journey to rejoin with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the primary battleground in a broader conflict with an oppressive government which, as such authorities often attempt, is striving to suppress independence of thinking, innovation and expression: all the internal, defiant ways in which humans can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The novel starts with the discovery of a set of curious fissures in the makeup of the Earth's sky: gateways that look to lead to different dimensions. One such portal seems to be the source of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its leadership, labels these openings as a problem to the church's doctrine and endeavors to destroy them. As Lyra begins to turn away from strict reason and revert to feeling, however, her conviction that these sites must be protected – that their meaning and their value is in some way crucial – strengthens. "The substance, or the substance, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a philosophical conflict between naivety and experience is set.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
