Tings are collapsing in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a realm that manifests, in this volume especially, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along new and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from states, and gathering in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the hands of rioters. "Something is at work, very quietly, gradually", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an city cafe. "Things we thought were firm and durable are deteriorating and giving way."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Exactly what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that propels The Rose Field, which continues where its predecessor concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's concluding foray into the elaborately built, deeply captivating universe he first revealed in the distant past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography maps on to that of our world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the people appear and think and behave like us, but are joined by external spirits, beings in beast form; where the heavens are populated with witches and legendary creatures, but below, vehicles are caught and tea is consumed, and middle-aged professors carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the prickly and determined heroine of the prior volumes, but more mature, melancholic, warier, less certain. This circumscription is amplified by her division from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to go off in quest of that innocent part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an trait which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, meeting with amazement and danger on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in play, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of austere, bureaucratic malice – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. The antagonist – our protagonist's family member, who faults her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his fresh authority to broaden the religion's dominium. A key character, who rescued infant the heroine to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is assigned to Geneva to find out more about Delamare's intentions. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and precious rose oil which appears mysteriously to be the cause of a social and economic upheaval emanating out from the region. The extract is regarded by various factions as a marketable commodity, by others as a empirical or esoteric miracle, and by further factions – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an challenge that must be eradicated. The dilemma of where it comes from, its meaning, and if it should be eliminated or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Like His Dark Materials, the heroine's actions, and her future, are demonstrated to be deeply entwined with the fate of the universe
In its predecessor, these plots ran largely in side by side. In the conclusion, they converge. Similar to His Dark Materials, her actions and her fate are revealed to be deeply entwined with the future of the universe. Her private quest to reconnect with her companion and rediscover her imagination becomes the key battleground in a wider battle with an oppressive government which, as such authorities typically do, is seeking to suppress independence of thought, originality and expression: all the inner, resistant ways in which people can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The novel starts with the finding of a series of curious cracks in the makeup of the planet's atmosphere: portals that seem to open into alternate realities. An example of a opening seems to be the origin of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The church, with the antagonist at its head, labels these openings as a challenge to the institution's doctrine and aims to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from rigid rationalism and revert to intuition, yet, her belief that these locations must be preserved – that what they stand for and their value is mysteriously vital – increases. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or whatever we label it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a Blakean conflict between purity and experience is set.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
