Things are collapsing in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a universe that seems, now more than ever, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Establishments are failing, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from states, and pooling in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of conglomerates, the control of crowds. "Some force is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says trader a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and strong are weakening and giving way."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that animates the concluding book, which resumes where the previous book ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding venture into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling universe he first revealed 30 years ago, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose geography corresponds to that of our world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the people appear and think and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, beings in beast form; where the skies are populated with witches and legendary creatures, but underneath, transports are taken and beverages is consumed, and older scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the first volume, the introductory book with which Pullman began the series, is now a young woman: still clearly the spiky and determined protagonist of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, warier, less sure. This limitation is heightened by her separation from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to leave in search of that childlike part of her which she appears to have shed (an trait which he represents as her "creativity"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which followed Lyra undertake a wandering voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with marvel and risk on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the faith's controlling power, and the author's brilliantly sinister representation of austere, administrative malice – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's relative, who blames her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the office of leader of the church's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his fresh influence to expand the church's control. Another protagonist, who saved infant the heroine to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in espionage: he is dispatched to the city to learn more about his intentions. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and costly essential oil which appears somehow to be the cause of a societal and economic disturbance spreading out from the region. The extract is viewed by some as a commercial product, by alternate groups as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by others still – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of darkness; an challenge that must be obliterated. The dilemma of where it comes from, its meaning, and whether it should be destroyed or protected is becoming urgent.
Similar to the original trilogy, Lyra's decisions, and her future, are revealed to be inseparably connected with the destiny of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran mostly in tandem. In the conclusion, they come together. Like the first trilogy, Lyra's actions and her fate are shown to be inseparably linked with the future of the realm. Her private journey to rejoin with her companion and recover her vision becomes the primary struggle in a wider war with an authoritarian government which, as such authorities always have, is striving to suppress freedom of reason, originality and culture: all the internal, rebellious ways in which humans can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The book opens with the finding of a series of curious openings in the makeup of the planet's atmosphere: windows that look to lead to other worlds. One such opening manifests to be the point of the much debated botanical substance. The Magisterium, with its leader at its leadership, designates these openings as a threat to the religion's beliefs and aims to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from inflexible reason and return to feeling, however, her conviction that these locations must be preserved – that their meaning and their value is somehow crucial – strengthens. "Dust, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a Blakean conflict between naivety and maturity is established.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
