Things are unraveling in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a realm that seems, now more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along novel and troubling lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from governments, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the treasuries of business empires, the hands of rioters. "Some force is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were secure and solid are weakening and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that propels this final volume, which picks up where its predecessor concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's last venture into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating world he first unveiled in the distant past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a world whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, souls in animal form; where the heavens are filled with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, transports are taken and beverages is consumed, and mature academics carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a child in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which Pullman began the series, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the sharp and persistent protagonist of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This circumscription is amplified by her split from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to go off in pursuit of that childlike part of her which she seems to have lost (an quality which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and peril on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in motion, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the church's ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister representation of strict, procedural malice – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's relative, who blames her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the position of leader of the church's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his newfound influence to broaden the institution's dominium. Another protagonist, who rescued baby the heroine to refuge along a swollen river as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an academic with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to a key location to find out more about his intentions. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and costly rose oil which seems in some way to be the cause of a societal and financial upheaval emanating out from that area. The extract is seen by certain groups as a commercial good, by alternate groups as a scientific or spiritual phenomenon, and by yet others – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an insult that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Similar to the first series, the heroine's decisions, and her future, are shown to be inextricably linked with the fate of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran mostly in parallel. In this final book, they merge. Similar to the original series, her actions and her path are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the future of the realm. Her individual mission to reconnect with her companion and recover her creativity becomes the primary conflict in a larger conflict with an controlling government which, as these systems typically do, is seeking to suppress autonomy of thought, innovation and culture: all the internal, resistant ways in which humans can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The novel begins with the unveiling of a series of strange cracks in the makeup of the world's atmosphere: portals that look to give on to different dimensions. One such window appears to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The church, with Delamare at its head, labels these portals as a threat to the religion's beliefs and sets out to destroy them. As the heroine begins to move from inflexible reason and back to instinct, however, her certainty that these places must be protected – that what they stand for and what they offer is somehow essential – grows. "Dust, or the extract, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a philosophical tussle between naivety and experience is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
