Things 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 appears, here more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from governments, and accumulating in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of corporations, the control of crowds. "Something is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and strong are faltering and giving way."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that animates this final volume, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's last excursion into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling realm he first unveiled in the distant past, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose terrain corresponds to that of this world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the humans appear and think and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, essences in animal form; where the heavens are filled with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, vehicles are caught and drinks is drunk, and mature scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a child in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the prickly and persistent heroine of the previous installments, but more mature, more sorrowful, more cautious, less certain. This limitation is heightened by her separation from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
The daemon's resolve to go off in search of that innocent part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an quality which he represents as her "creativity"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with marvel and danger on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in motion, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's deliciously chilling embodiment of rigid, bureaucratic malice – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's family member, who faults her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the office of leader of the church's governing body, and is intent on using his newfound power to expand the church's rule. A key character, who saved infant the heroine to security along a swollen river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in espionage: he is dispatched to a key location to learn more about his plans. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and valuable essential oil which manifests in some way to be the cause of a societal and financial disturbance rippling out from that area. The oil is seen by certain groups as a tradeable good, by others as a research-based or spiritual miracle, and by further factions – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of darkness; an affront that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its origins, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
As in the original trilogy, our protagonist's deeds, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the realm
In the previous volume, these storylines ran largely in parallel. In the conclusion, they merge. As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's movements and her destiny are unveiled to be deeply woven with the destiny of the realm. Her individual quest to reunite with her daemon and regain her imagination becomes the central battleground in a larger conflict with an authoritarian system which, as these systems typically do, is striving to suppress autonomy of thinking, originality and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which people can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The story begins with the finding of a set of curious cracks in the fabric of the planet's atmosphere: portals that appear to lead to other worlds. An example of a portal appears to be the point of the highly contested mystical extract. The authority, with the antagonist at its helm, labels these windows as a challenge to the religion's beliefs and aims to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from rigid logic and return to feeling, however, her certainty that these places must be defended – that their significance and what they provide is in some way crucial – increases. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a Blakean tussle between purity and knowledge is set.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
