Field of Roses: Philip Pullman's Nail-Biting Conclusion to the His Dark Materials Series
Things are unraveling in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a universe that appears, here more than ever, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or restructuring themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is draining from authorities, and accumulating in the chambers of theocrats, the coffers of conglomerates, the hands of rioters. "Some force is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and durable are faltering and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that propels this final volume, which continues where the previous book concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's concluding venture into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting realm he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a world whose terrain maps on to that of the real world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the individuals look and think and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, beings in animal form; where the heavens are filled with witches and gryphons, but underneath, buses are caught and drinks is drunk, and older academics carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a adult: still recognisably the prickly and persistent main character of the prior volumes, but older, melancholic, more careful, less sure. This restraint is amplified by her division from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to depart in search of that innocent part of her which she appears to have shed (an quality which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which saw Lyra undertake a wandering trek across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with wonder and risk on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the faith's governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling embodiment of strict, bureaucratic wickedness – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's uncle, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the role of head of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is set on using his newfound authority to broaden the institution's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued baby the heroine to safety along a flooded Thames as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is assigned to Geneva to learn more about Delamare's aims. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and precious essential oil which appears in some way to be the origin of a societal and economic crisis emanating out from Central Asia. The substance is regarded by some as a marketable commodity, by others as a research-based or esoteric wonder, and by yet others – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a source of darkness; an affront that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be destroyed or protected is escalating in importance.
Similar to His Dark Materials, our protagonist's decisions, and her fate, are shown to be deeply connected with the future of the world
In its predecessor, these plots ran broadly in side by side. In the conclusion, they merge. As in the original series, the protagonist's choices and her fate are unveiled to be inseparably entwined with the future of the world. Her individual quest to reconnect with her soul and rediscover her imagination becomes the primary battleground in a broader battle with an controlling system which, as these systems often attempt, is seeking to stifle independence of reason, creativity and expression: all the personal, defiant ways in which humans can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The story starts with the discovery of a collection of unusual cracks in the makeup of the world's sky: portals that look to lead to alternate realities. An example of a window manifests to be the point of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The authority, with the antagonist at its helm, labels these portals as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and aims to destroy them. As the heroine begins to shift from inflexible rationalism and revert to instinct, however, her conviction that these sites must be preserved – that what they stand for and what they provide is somehow essential – strengthens. "The substance, or the extract, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a Blakean conflict between purity and knowledge is set.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the