Things are collapsing in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a universe that seems, here more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or restructuring themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from governments, and pooling in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the control of rioters. "Something is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were stable and solid are faltering and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Exactly what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that animates The Rose Field, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, according to many, the author's final excursion into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling realm he first unveiled three decades past, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose terrain maps on to that of this world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are paired by daemons, souls in animal form; where the air are populated with witches and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, transports are ridden and drinks is consumed, and older professors carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the sharp and persistent main character of the earlier books, but older, melancholic, more cautious, more doubtful. This circumscription is intensified by her separation from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to leave in pursuit of that childlike part of her which she may have forgotten (an trait which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and peril on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in play, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister representation of strict, procedural malice – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – our protagonist's family member, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the position of head of the authority's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound authority to broaden the institution's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued baby the heroine to safety along a swollen river as an child in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a sideline in espionage: he is sent to the city to learn more about the antagonist's aims. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and costly botanical extract which seems mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and financial crisis spreading out from that area. The substance is viewed by certain groups as a tradeable product, by different parties as a scientific or spiritual miracle, and by others still – the zealous "highland figures" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an affront that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its source, its significance, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Similar to the first series, our protagonist's decisions, and her fate, are shown to be inextricably connected with the destiny of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran largely in tandem. In The Rose Field, they converge. Similar to the original series, her movements and her destiny are shown to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the world. Her personal journey to rejoin with her daemon and recover her vision becomes the key battleground in a wider war with an authoritarian government which, as such authorities always have, is attempting to stifle autonomy of reason, innovation and expression: all the internal, resistant ways in which humans can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The story opens with the unveiling of a collection of unusual openings in the structure of the world's air: windows that look to open into other worlds. One such opening seems to be the origin of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The church, with the antagonist at its helm, designates these openings as a threat to the institution's orthodoxy and endeavors to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to move from strict logic and return to feeling, however, her belief that these sites must be preserved – that their meaning and what they provide is in some way essential – grows. "Dust, or the extract, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a poetic tussle between naivety and experience is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
