The Rose Field: Philip Pullman's Gripping Conclusion to the His Dark Materials Series

Things are falling apart in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a world that manifests, here more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along new and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is draining from states, and gathering in the offices of religious leaders, the vaults of business empires, the control of rioters. "An element is at work, silently, gradually", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and durable are faltering and collapsing."

Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey

Just what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that drives the concluding book, which resumes where the previous book concluded. This is, according to many, the author's last excursion into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting world he first revealed 30 years ago, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose terrain maps on to that of the real world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and behave like us, but are paired by animal souls, essences in beast form; where the skies are teeming with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but below, vehicles are caught and tea is drunk, and mature academics carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the prequel, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still clearly the spiky and tenacious heroine of the earlier books, but older, more sorrowful, more cautious, less certain. This limitation is intensified by her division from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

The daemon's resolve to go off in search of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an trait which he represents as her "vision"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, meeting with wonder and danger on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in play, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the religious ruling body, and the author's masterfully eerie embodiment of strict, administrative malice – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's relative, who blames her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the position of leader of the authority's governing body, and is set on using his newfound influence to broaden the institution's control. Another protagonist, who rescued infant the heroine to safety along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in spycraft: he is assigned to Geneva to find out more about Delamare's plans. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and valuable botanical extract which manifests somehow to be the origin of a societal and financial disturbance rippling out from the region. The oil is seen by some as a marketable commodity, by alternate groups as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by further factions – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a source of malevolence; an affront that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its source, what it stands for, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.

Like the original trilogy, the heroine's deeds, and her destiny, are revealed to be deeply connected with the future of the world

In the previous volume, these plots ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they merge. As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions and her path are shown to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the universe. Her individual journey to rejoin with her daemon and recover her creativity becomes the central conflict in a wider war with an controlling regime which, as such authorities always have, is striving to quell freedom of reason, creativity and art: all the inner, rebellious ways in which humans can be independent.

Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles

The story begins with the unveiling of a set of strange fissures in the fabric of the Earth's atmosphere: gateways that appear to open into other worlds. A particular opening seems to be the source of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its head, classifies these openings as a challenge to the institution's orthodoxy and endeavors to destroy them. As Lyra begins to shift from strict logic and back to intuition, however, her conviction that these places must be preserved – that what they stand for and what they offer is mysteriously essential – increases. "The substance, or the extract, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a Blakean conflict between innocence and knowledge is established.

Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth

At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the