Things are unraveling in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's masterful trilogies set in a world that appears, in this volume especially, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along new and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from authorities, and pooling in the chambers of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the control of mobs. "Some force is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and durable are deteriorating and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Precisely what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that propels the concluding book, which picks up where the previous book concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's concluding excursion into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating world he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose terrain corresponds to that of the real world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans look and reason and behave like us, but are joined by external spirits, souls in animal form; where the skies are teeming with witches and mythical beasts, but below, buses are taken and drinks is consumed, and older academics carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a adult: still distinctly the spiky and tenacious main character of the prior volumes, but aged, melancholic, warier, less certain. This limitation is heightened by her split from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to depart in search of that innocent part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with wonder and danger on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in motion, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister representation of strict, administrative evil – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's uncle, who faults her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the role of leader of the church's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his recently acquired influence to extend the religion's control. A key character, who carried baby Lyra to refuge along a swollen river as an young boy in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in espionage: he is dispatched to the city to discover more about Delamare's intentions. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and precious rose oil which seems in some way to be the origin of a social and economic upheaval emanating out from the region. The extract is seen by certain groups as a commercial good, by different parties as a empirical or esoteric phenomenon, and by others still – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a source of darkness; an challenge that must be destroyed. The question of its source, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or preserved is becoming urgent.
Similar to the first series, the heroine's deeds, and her fate, are revealed to be inextricably connected with the destiny of the world
In the previous volume, these storylines ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they converge. As in the original series, Lyra's movements and her destiny are shown to be inseparably entwined with the future of the universe. Her personal mission to reunite with her soul and rediscover her imagination becomes the key conflict in a broader battle with an oppressive system which, as these systems always have, is seeking to quell autonomy of thought, creativity and culture: all the personal, defiant ways in which people can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The story starts with the unveiling of a series of curious openings in the makeup of the planet's air: portals that seem to give on to other worlds. An example of a portal manifests to be the point of the highly contested botanical substance. The authority, with Delamare at its head, designates these portals as a challenge to the religion's beliefs and aims to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to shift from strict logic and return to intuition, yet, her belief that these sites must be protected – that what they stand for and their value is mysteriously vital – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or whatever we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a Blakean tussle between purity and experience is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
