Things are unraveling in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a universe that manifests, now more than ever, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reassembling themselves along new and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is draining from governments, and pooling in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the hands of mobs. "An element is at work, very quietly, gradually", says businessman a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and durable are faltering and giving way."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that animates the concluding book, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, reportedly, the author's last foray into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting world he first introduced in the distant past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose landscape corresponds to that of our world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and behave like us, but are paired by animal souls, beings in beast form; where the air are filled with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but below, buses are caught and tea is sipped, and middle-aged professors carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the sharp and tenacious heroine of the previous installments, but aged, melancholic, more cautious, more doubtful. This circumscription is intensified by her separation from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to go off in quest of that youthful part of her which she may have forgotten (an trait which he represents as her "imagination"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which saw Lyra undertake a wandering journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, meeting with wonder and danger on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the religious ruling body, and the author's deliciously chilling embodiment of rigid, procedural wickedness – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who faults her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of leader of the church's ruling assembly, and is set on using his recently acquired authority to expand the religion's rule. Another protagonist, who rescued baby the heroine to security along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is assigned to a key location to learn more about his intentions. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and precious rose oil which seems in some way to be the cause of a societal and financial crisis rippling out from the region. The oil is regarded by certain groups as a commercial product, by alternate groups as a empirical or mystical miracle, and by further factions – the zealous "highland figures" – as a source of darkness; an insult that must be eradicated. The issue of its source, its meaning, and whether it should be eliminated or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to the first series, the heroine's actions, and her destiny, are revealed to be inseparably connected with the destiny of the world
In the previous volume, these storylines ran broadly in parallel. In the conclusion, they merge. As in the first trilogy, Lyra's movements and her path are unveiled to be deeply woven with the fate of the world. Her personal quest to rejoin with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the key conflict in a wider conflict with an controlling regime which, as these systems typically do, is attempting to stifle autonomy of thinking, creativity and art: all the internal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The story starts with the unveiling of a set of unusual fissures in the structure of the world's atmosphere: portals that seem to open into alternate realities. One such portal appears to be the source of the much debated mystical extract. The Magisterium, with its leader at its helm, classifies these portals as a threat to the institution's beliefs and aims to destroy them. As Lyra begins to shift from rigid logic and revert to intuition, yet, her certainty that these places must be protected – that what they stand for and what they offer is in some way essential – grows. "Dust, or the extract, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or whatever we label it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a poetic conflict between purity and knowledge is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
