Tings are unraveling in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a realm that appears, now more than ever, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is draining from governments, and pooling in the chambers of religious leaders, the treasuries of business empires, the hands of crowds. "Some force is at work, very quietly, gradually", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his post in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and strong are deteriorating and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that animates this final volume, which continues where the previous book left off. This is, by all accounts, the author's last venture into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling world he first unveiled three decades past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a world whose terrain maps on to that of our world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the people appear and think and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, souls in creature form; where the skies are teeming with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but below, transports are taken and drinks is drunk, and middle-aged professors carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met 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 this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the sharp and persistent heroine of the previous installments, but more mature, melancholic, more careful, less sure. This restraint is heightened by her split from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to leave in pursuit of that innocent part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an trait which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with amazement and risk on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in play, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the church's controlling power, and the author's brilliantly sinister embodiment of austere, procedural evil – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. The antagonist – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the position of leader of the church's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound influence to expand the institution's control. Another protagonist, who carried young Lyra to safety along a overflowing river as an child in the prequel, is now an academic with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to the city to find out more about his aims. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and precious botanical extract which manifests somehow to be the cause of a societal and economic disturbance rippling out from that area. The oil is seen by some as a tradeable product, by alternate groups as a empirical or esoteric miracle, and by yet others – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a source of darkness; an challenge that must be destroyed. The dilemma of its origins, its significance, and if it should be removed or protected is escalating in importance.
As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's deeds, and her destiny, are shown to be inseparably entwined with the future of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran broadly in tandem. In the conclusion, they converge. Similar to the original series, her movements and her path are shown to be deeply entwined with the fate of the realm. Her personal quest to reunite with her soul and rediscover her vision becomes the primary conflict in a broader war with an controlling regime which, as such regimes often attempt, is attempting to suppress independence of reason, innovation and culture: all the personal, rebellious ways in which people can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The novel starts with the discovery of a series of strange fissures in the makeup of the Earth's air: windows that look to lead to other worlds. An example of a portal seems to be the source of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The church, with Delamare at its helm, designates these openings as a challenge to the institution's orthodoxy and endeavors to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from strict logic and return to instinct, however, her conviction that these locations must be protected – that their meaning and their value is mysteriously vital – increases. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a Blakean tussle between naivety and maturity is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
