Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a world that seems, here more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reassembling themselves along new and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from states, and pooling in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of conglomerates, the control of crowds. "Some force is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and strong are deteriorating and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that propels this final volume, which resumes where the previous book ended. This is, according to many, the author's last foray into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting world he first introduced in the distant past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a world whose terrain aligns with that of our world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and think and act like us, but are paired by daemons, essences in creature form; where the air are filled with witches and gryphons, but underneath, transports are taken and drinks is sipped, and older scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still recognisably the spiky and tenacious heroine of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, more careful, more doubtful. This circumscription is heightened by her separation from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to leave in quest of that youthful part of her which she may have forgotten (an quality which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which followed Lyra undertake a adventurous journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with marvel and danger on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in play, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the religious ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of rigid, administrative evil – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – Lyra's uncle, who blames her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the office of leader of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his fresh authority to broaden the church's dominium. Another protagonist, who carried baby the heroine to refuge along a overflowing river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in spycraft: he is sent to the city to learn more about the antagonist's aims. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and precious essential oil which manifests in some way to be the origin of a social and financial upheaval emanating out from the region. The substance is viewed by certain groups as a marketable product, by different parties as a scientific or esoteric miracle, and by others still – the zealous "highland figures" – as a source of malevolence; an challenge that must be obliterated. The question of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be eliminated or protected is becoming urgent.
Similar to the first series, the heroine's decisions, and her future, are revealed to be deeply linked with the future of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran mostly in parallel. In the conclusion, they converge. Similar to His Dark Materials, her choices and her destiny are shown to be deeply linked with the fate of the universe. Her personal journey to reconnect with her daemon and rediscover her vision becomes the central battleground in a broader war with an authoritarian system which, as these systems often attempt, is striving to suppress freedom of thinking, innovation and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which people can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The book starts with the unveiling of a set of unusual fissures in the fabric of the planet's air: windows that appear to lead to different dimensions. A particular opening seems to be the point of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The authority, with Delamare at its helm, designates these portals as a threat to the institution's orthodoxy and endeavors to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to shift from inflexible logic and return to feeling, yet, her belief that these sites must be protected – that their significance and their value is in some way vital – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or whatever we label it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a philosophical tussle between innocence and experience is established.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
