Things are unraveling in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a realm that seems, in this volume especially, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from states, and accumulating in the offices of theocrats, the vaults of corporations, the control of mobs. "Some force is at work, silently, gradually", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his post in an city cafe. "Things we thought were secure and durable are faltering and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Just what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that propels this final volume, which picks up where its predecessor left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final venture into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting realm he first revealed three decades past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose geography corresponds to that of this world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals look and reason and behave like us, but are paired by daemons, essences in animal form; where the heavens are teeming with witches and gryphons, but beneath those skies, vehicles are caught and drinks is consumed, and middle-aged professors carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a child in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the first volume, the introductory book with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still clearly the sharp and determined protagonist of the earlier books, but older, melancholic, more cautious, more doubtful. This circumscription is intensified by her split from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to depart in search of that innocent part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an trait which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with amazement and risk on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the church's controlling power, and Pullman's masterfully eerie representation of strict, administrative malice – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's family member, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the office of president of the authority's governing body, and is determined on using his recently acquired power to expand the religion's control. A key character, who rescued infant the heroine to security along a overflowing Thames as an child in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in spycraft: he is sent to the city to find out more about his aims. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and precious botanical extract which manifests mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and financial disturbance emanating out from the region. The substance is viewed by some as a commercial commodity, by different parties as a scientific or spiritual phenomenon, and by yet others – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a origin of darkness; an affront that must be destroyed. The question of its source, its significance, and whether it should be eliminated or protected is becoming urgent.
Like the first series, Lyra's deeds, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inseparably entwined with the destiny of the universe
In the previous volume, these narratives ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they merge. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's movements and her path are shown to be deeply woven with the fate of the realm. Her personal quest to rejoin with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the central battleground in a wider war with an oppressive government which, as such regimes typically do, is attempting to stifle freedom of thinking, innovation and culture: all the personal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The story starts with the finding of a collection of strange openings in the fabric of the Earth's air: windows that seem to give on to alternate realities. An example of a portal seems to be the origin of the much debated botanical substance. The Magisterium, with its leader at its helm, classifies these portals as a threat to the church's doctrine and sets out to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to shift from rigid rationalism and back to intuition, yet, her belief that these locations must be preserved – that their meaning and their value is somehow crucial – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or whatever we call it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical conflict between innocence and maturity is prepared.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
