Things are falling apart in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that appears, here more than ever, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or restructuring themselves along new and troubling lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is draining from authorities, and accumulating in the chambers of religious leaders, the vaults of conglomerates, the grasp of mobs. "An element is at work, stealthily, gradually", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and strong are weakening and giving way."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Precisely what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that propels the concluding book, which resumes where its predecessor concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's final venture into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling universe he first revealed 30 years ago, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose geography maps on to that of this world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, essences in creature form; where the skies are teeming with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, transports are ridden and tea is drunk, and middle-aged academics carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the first volume, the origin story with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the sharp and persistent heroine of the prior volumes, but aged, sadder, more cautious, less certain. This restraint is amplified by her separation from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to depart in quest of that childlike part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a wandering trek across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and peril on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the religious ruling body, and the author's masterfully eerie representation of austere, bureaucratic evil – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who faults her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the role of president of the Magisterium's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound influence to extend the institution's rule. Another protagonist, who saved baby the heroine to refuge along a swollen river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is sent to the city to find out more about the antagonist's aims. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and costly essential oil which appears mysteriously to be the cause of a social and financial crisis spreading out from Central Asia. The extract is regarded by various factions as a tradeable good, by alternate groups as a empirical or spiritual wonder, and by yet others – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a origin of darkness; an insult that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its origins, its significance, and if it should be removed or protected is becoming urgent.
As in His Dark Materials, the heroine's actions, and her fate, are shown to be inextricably linked with the future of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran largely in tandem. In this final book, they merge. Similar to the first trilogy, the protagonist's movements and her destiny are shown to be deeply linked with the fate of the realm. Her private journey to rejoin with her soul and rediscover her imagination becomes the central conflict in a broader war with an controlling regime which, as such regimes typically do, is seeking to suppress autonomy of thought, innovation and culture: all the internal, rebellious ways in which humans can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The book begins with the discovery of a set of curious openings in the fabric of the world's atmosphere: gateways that look to open into different dimensions. An example of a window manifests to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The church, with Delamare at its leadership, labels these windows as a threat to the church's doctrine and sets out to destroy them. As the heroine begins to move from rigid reason and revert to intuition, however, her certainty that these locations must be protected – that what they stand for and what they provide is somehow vital – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a Blakean struggle between purity and experience is established.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
