Things are collapsing in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that appears, here more than ever, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reassembling themselves along new and troubling lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from authorities, and pooling in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of business empires, the grasp of mobs. "An element is at work, very quietly, gradually", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and durable are weakening and failing."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that propels the concluding book, which resumes where its predecessor left off. This is, according to many, the author's final foray into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting universe he first revealed in the distant past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose landscape aligns with that of our world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are paired by daemons, souls in creature form; where the skies are populated with witches and legendary creatures, but below, vehicles are taken and beverages is sipped, and middle-aged academics carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still distinctly the prickly and persistent protagonist of the previous installments, but older, sadder, more careful, less certain. This limitation is heightened by her separation from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to go off in quest of that youthful part of her which she appears to have shed (an quality which he represents as her "vision"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and peril on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister incarnation of austere, administrative evil – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's uncle, who faults her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the position of head of the Magisterium's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound power to broaden the religion's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who carried baby the heroine to safety along a overflowing river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in espionage: he is dispatched to the city to find out more about the antagonist's plans. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and valuable essential oil which manifests in some way to be the origin of a societal and economic upheaval spreading out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by some as a commercial product, by different parties as a scientific or esoteric wonder, and by yet others – the extremist "highland figures" – as a origin of evil; an insult that must be destroyed. The question of where it comes from, what it stands for, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Similar to the original trilogy, the heroine's decisions, and her destiny, are revealed to be inseparably linked with the future of the world
In the previous volume, these storylines ran mostly in tandem. In the conclusion, they come together. Like the original series, Lyra's choices and her path are shown to be inseparably woven with the future of the universe. Her individual quest to rejoin with her companion and recover her creativity becomes the central battleground in a broader conflict with an authoritarian system which, as such authorities typically do, is seeking to quell autonomy of reason, innovation and culture: all the internal, rebellious ways in which humans can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The story begins with the finding of a series of curious cracks in the fabric of the world's atmosphere: gateways that appear to open into alternate realities. An example of a window appears to be the point of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The authority, with the antagonist at its leadership, labels these openings as a problem to the religion's beliefs and endeavors to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to move from rigid logic and back to feeling, yet, her belief that these places must be preserved – that their significance and what they provide is in some way crucial – increases. "Dust, or the substance, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we label it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a poetic conflict between innocence and maturity is established.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
