Field of Roses: Pullman's Thrilling Conclusion to the His Dark Materials Trilogy

Things are collapsing in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a world that seems, in this volume especially, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from governments, and gathering in the offices of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the control of rioters. "Some force is at work, silently, gradually", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an city cafe. "Things we thought were firm and solid are deteriorating and giving way."

The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey

Exactly what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that drives The Rose Field, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, reportedly, the author's final foray into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating universe he first revealed 30 years ago, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose geography maps on to that of the real world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the people appear and reason and behave like us, but are joined by daemons, beings in beast form; where the air are populated with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, buses are caught and drinks is drunk, and mature academics carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the first volume, the origin story with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still clearly the sharp and persistent main character of the previous installments, but more mature, more sorrowful, more careful, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her division from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

His choice to depart in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an trait which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a adventurous trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with amazement and danger on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in play, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the faith's ruling body, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister incarnation of strict, bureaucratic malice – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's uncle, who faults her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of leader of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his newfound influence to expand the institution's dominium. Another protagonist, who carried infant Lyra to safety along a flooded Thames as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a sideline in intelligence work: he is dispatched to Geneva to discover more about his intentions. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and precious botanical extract which manifests somehow to be the cause of a societal and economic crisis spreading out from Central Asia. The extract is regarded by certain groups as a tradeable product, by different parties as a empirical or mystical miracle, and by yet others – the extremist "highland figures" – as a origin of malevolence; an challenge that must be eradicated. The issue of its origins, its meaning, and whether it should be destroyed or preserved is coming rapidly to the fore.

Similar to the original trilogy, Lyra's decisions, and her fate, are shown to be inextricably connected with the destiny of the world

In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran mostly in side by side. In this final book, they converge. Similar to the original series, the protagonist's movements and her path are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the universe. Her private journey to reunite with her soul and regain her imagination becomes the primary conflict in a larger war with an oppressive system which, as such authorities often attempt, is seeking to suppress autonomy of reason, creativity and art: all the inner, rebellious ways in which individuals can be liberated.

Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts

The novel starts with the finding of a series of strange openings in the fabric of the planet's air: windows that appear to give on to other worlds. One such window appears to be the origin of the highly contested botanical substance. The Magisterium, with its leader at its head, labels these portals as a problem to the church's doctrine and aims to destroy them. As the heroine begins to move from strict reason and revert to feeling, yet, her certainty that these places must be defended – that what they stand for and what they provide is mysteriously crucial – increases. "The substance, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we label it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a Blakean struggle between innocence and experience is set.

Story Tempo and Character Development

At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the