The Rose Field: Pullman's Nail-Biting Finale to the His Dark Materials Series
Tings are unraveling in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a universe that appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along novel and troubling lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from governments, and accumulating in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the grasp of crowds. "An element is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and durable are deteriorating and failing."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which picks up where its predecessor left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's final excursion into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting universe he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a world whose geography maps on to that of the real world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, beings in beast form; where the heavens are populated with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but below, vehicles are taken and tea is consumed, and older professors carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the prickly and tenacious main character of the previous installments, but more mature, more sorrowful, more careful, less certain. This restraint is amplified by her separation from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to depart in quest of that innocent part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with marvel and peril on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in motion, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the religious governing authority, and the author's brilliantly sinister representation of rigid, bureaucratic wickedness – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the office of president of the Magisterium's governing body, and is set on using his fresh influence to expand the religion's dominium. A key character, who saved young Lyra to refuge along a overflowing river as an child in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in spycraft: he is assigned to the city to find out more about Delamare's plans. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and precious rose oil which manifests in some way to be the origin of a social and financial crisis emanating out from the region. The substance is viewed by various factions as a commercial good, by alternate groups as a empirical or esoteric miracle, and by further factions – the zealous "highland figures" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an insult that must be obliterated. The issue of its source, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Like the original trilogy, our protagonist's actions, and her fate, are shown to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the world
In its predecessor, these narratives ran mostly in parallel. In this final book, they merge. Similar to the original series, her choices and her fate are revealed to be inextricably linked with the future of the world. Her private journey to reunite with her soul and recover her creativity becomes the key struggle in a larger battle with an oppressive system which, as such authorities typically do, is seeking to suppress independence of reason, originality and expression: all the inner, rebellious ways in which individuals can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The story opens with the finding of a set of strange cracks in the structure of the world's sky: gateways that seem to lead to different dimensions. A particular window appears to be the origin of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The authority, with its leader at its leadership, classifies these openings as a challenge to the religion's beliefs and endeavors to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to move from rigid reason and return to feeling, yet, her conviction that these locations must be defended – that their meaning and what they provide is in some way essential – strengthens. "The substance, or the extract, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a Blakean conflict between naivety and experience is established.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
