Tings are unraveling in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a universe that appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from governments, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the vaults of business empires, the grasp of crowds. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says merchant a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and solid are faltering and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that propels the concluding book, which continues where its predecessor ended. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's concluding foray into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating world he first unveiled three decades past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose terrain corresponds to that of the real world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, souls in animal form; where the skies are populated with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, buses are caught and drinks is consumed, and mature scholars carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still recognisably the spiky and determined heroine of the earlier books, but aged, sadder, warier, less certain. This restraint is amplified by her separation from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to leave in search of that youthful part of her which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a wandering trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with amazement and risk on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the church's controlling power, and the author's deliciously chilling incarnation of austere, procedural wickedness – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's family member, who blames her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of leader of the authority's High Council, and is set on using his newfound authority to extend the religion's rule. A key character, who saved infant the heroine to refuge along a swollen Thames as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a sideline in espionage: he is sent to a key location to find out more about the antagonist's plans. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and valuable botanical extract which appears somehow to be the cause of a social and financial crisis emanating out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by certain groups as a tradeable good, by alternate groups as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by yet others – the zealous "highland figures" – as a origin of malevolence; an insult that must be eradicated. The issue of its source, what it stands for, and whether it should be eliminated or preserved is escalating in importance.
As in the first series, our protagonist's decisions, and her destiny, are shown to be inseparably entwined with the fate of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran mostly in parallel. In the conclusion, they converge. As in His Dark Materials, her movements and her destiny are unveiled to be deeply woven with the future of the universe. Her private quest to reunite with her soul and rediscover her creativity becomes the primary struggle in a wider conflict with an authoritarian regime which, as such regimes typically do, is attempting to quell autonomy of reason, innovation and culture: all the internal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The book starts with the discovery of a series of strange fissures in the structure of the planet's air: gateways that appear to give on to alternate realities. A particular portal seems to be the source of the highly contested mystical extract. The church, with Delamare at its head, designates these windows as a threat to the religion's orthodoxy and sets out to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to shift from rigid logic and return to feeling, however, her certainty that these sites must be defended – that what they stand for and their value is somehow crucial – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a Blakean tussle between innocence and experience is prepared.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
