Field of Roses: Pullman's Gripping Finale to the His Dark Materials Series
Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that manifests, in this volume especially, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from authorities, and gathering in the offices of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the hands of rioters. "Some force is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and strong are weakening and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Just what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that animates The Rose Field, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's final foray into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating realm he first revealed 30 years ago, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose geography aligns with that of this world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, essences in beast form; where the skies are populated with sorceresses and gryphons, but beneath those skies, transports are taken and tea is drunk, and older professors carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the spiky and determined protagonist of the earlier books, but aged, more sorrowful, more cautious, more doubtful. This limitation is amplified by her split from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to leave in pursuit of that childlike part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an quality which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which saw Lyra undertake a wandering voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with wonder and danger on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister embodiment of rigid, bureaucratic wickedness – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's relative, who faults her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the role of president of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his newfound authority to broaden the church's control. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued baby the heroine to refuge along a flooded Thames as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a sideline in espionage: he is assigned to a key location to discover more about Delamare's plans. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and precious rose oil which manifests in some way to be the source of a societal and economic disturbance spreading out from Central Asia. The oil is viewed by certain groups as a commercial product, by others as a empirical or mystical phenomenon, and by others still – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of darkness; an affront that must be eradicated. The issue of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Similar to His Dark Materials, our protagonist's deeds, and her future, are shown to be inseparably connected with the future of the universe
In its predecessor, these storylines ran largely in parallel. In this final book, they come together. As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions and her path are shown to be deeply woven with the fate of the universe. Her private mission to rejoin with her daemon and rediscover her creativity becomes the central battleground in a larger battle with an controlling government which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to stifle independence of thought, originality and art: all the inner, rebellious ways in which people can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The story begins with the unveiling of a set of strange openings in the structure of the planet's sky: portals that look to open into different dimensions. An example of a portal manifests to be the origin of the highly contested rose oil. The church, with the antagonist at its leadership, classifies these windows as a problem to the religion's beliefs and endeavors to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to shift from rigid reason and revert to instinct, yet, her belief that these places must be protected – that their meaning and their value is in some way essential – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or whatever we label it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a Blakean struggle between innocence and maturity is established.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the