Things are collapsing in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's grand trilogies set in a universe that manifests, in this volume especially, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from governments, and pooling in the offices of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the control of crowds. "An element is at work, silently, very subtly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and strong are weakening and failing."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that animates this final volume, which picks up where its predecessor ended. This is, by all accounts, the author's last venture into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting universe he first revealed in the distant past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose geography aligns with that of this 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, beings in beast form; where the heavens are populated with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, vehicles are ridden and beverages is consumed, and older professors carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the prequel, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still recognisably the sharp and determined protagonist of the previous installments, but older, more sorrowful, warier, less certain. This restraint 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.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to leave in quest of that youthful part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an quality which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and danger on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in motion, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's masterfully eerie incarnation of rigid, procedural wickedness – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's family member, who blames her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of president of the church's ruling assembly, and is set on using his recently acquired power to broaden the religion's dominium. Another protagonist, who rescued young Lyra to refuge along a flooded Thames as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in spycraft: he is dispatched to a key location to find out more about Delamare's plans. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and valuable botanical extract which manifests mysteriously to be the source of a social and financial disturbance spreading out from that area. The oil is regarded by various factions as a tradeable commodity, by alternate groups as a scientific or spiritual wonder, and by yet others – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a origin of darkness; an affront that must be destroyed. The issue of its origins, its meaning, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Similar to the first series, the heroine's deeds, and her future, are shown to be deeply linked with the fate of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran mostly in side by side. In this final book, they merge. Like the original series, her choices and her path are unveiled to be inextricably woven with the destiny of the universe. Her personal mission to rejoin with her companion and rediscover her imagination becomes the key struggle in a wider conflict with an authoritarian system which, as these systems often attempt, is striving to stifle freedom of thinking, creativity and culture: all the personal, defiant ways in which humans can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The book begins with the finding of a series of unusual openings in the structure of the planet's air: gateways that appear to lead to other worlds. An example of a portal seems to be the source of the highly contested mystical extract. The church, with the antagonist at its leadership, labels these portals as a problem to the religion's beliefs and endeavors to destroy them. As Lyra begins to shift from strict logic and revert to instinct, yet, her belief that these locations must be protected – that their significance and their value is somehow crucial – strengthens. "Dust, or the substance, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a philosophical struggle between innocence and knowledge is established.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
