Things are collapsing in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that manifests, in this volume especially, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is draining from governments, and pooling in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the control of mobs. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an city cafe. "Things we thought were stable and strong are deteriorating and giving way."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Exactly what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that propels the concluding book, which continues where the previous book ended. This is, reportedly, the author's final venture into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting realm he first revealed 30 years ago, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a world whose terrain corresponds to that of our world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the people look and think and behave like us, but are joined by daemons, essences in animal form; where the heavens are populated with witches and mythical beasts, but underneath, buses are taken and tea is drunk, and mature academics carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the first volume, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a adult: still clearly the spiky and determined protagonist of the earlier books, but more mature, more sorrowful, more careful, more doubtful. This limitation is amplified by her division from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to go off in pursuit of that youthful part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an trait which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with marvel and risk on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in action, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling embodiment of strict, administrative wickedness – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's family member, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of leader of the church's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his newfound power to broaden the institution's control. Another protagonist, who carried baby Lyra to refuge along a flooded Thames as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an academic with a secondary role in spycraft: he is dispatched to Geneva to learn more about Delamare's plans. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and precious essential oil which appears in some way to be the origin of a social and economic crisis rippling out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by certain groups as a commercial good, by others as a empirical or esoteric wonder, and by yet others – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of darkness; an challenge that must be destroyed. The issue of its source, what it stands for, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Like the original trilogy, our protagonist's decisions, and her destiny, are revealed to be inseparably connected with the future of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran broadly in side by side. In the conclusion, they merge. As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions and her destiny are shown to be inseparably linked with the future of the realm. Her personal quest to reunite with her daemon and rediscover her vision becomes the key struggle in a broader battle with an oppressive government which, as these systems often attempt, is striving to stifle autonomy of thinking, creativity and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which people can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The book starts with the discovery of a collection of unusual cracks in the fabric of the world's sky: windows that appear to give on to other worlds. An example of a opening manifests to be the origin of the highly contested botanical substance. The authority, with the antagonist at its helm, classifies these portals as a threat to the institution's beliefs and endeavors to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from rigid reason and back to instinct, yet, her belief that these sites must be protected – that their significance and their value is in some way essential – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical conflict between purity and knowledge is set.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the