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Things are falling apart in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that seems, here more than ever, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Institutions are failing, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from states, and pooling in the halls of theocrats, the vaults of corporations, the control of rioters. "Something is at work, stealthily, gradually", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were secure and strong are deteriorating and giving way."

Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey

Exactly what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that propels The Rose Field, which resumes where the previous book left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final venture into the elaborately built, deeply captivating universe he first introduced three decades past, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a world whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals look and think and behave like us, but are paired by external spirits, beings in creature form; where the air are teeming with enchantresses and gryphons, but beneath those skies, transports are taken and drinks is consumed, and older academics carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the first volume, the prequel with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still recognisably the spiky and determined protagonist of the earlier books, but more mature, more sorrowful, more cautious, less sure. This circumscription is amplified by her division from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

Pan's decision to depart in quest of that youthful part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an trait which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a picaresque trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, meeting with marvel and danger on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in action, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the faith's governing authority, and the author's masterfully eerie representation of rigid, bureaucratic wickedness – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's relative, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of head of the church's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his recently acquired authority to broaden the church's rule. A key character, who saved baby Lyra to refuge along a flooded river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in spycraft: he is assigned to a key location to learn more about Delamare's plans. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and valuable rose oil which seems mysteriously to be the source of a societal and financial upheaval rippling out from that area. The extract is seen by some as a tradeable commodity, by different parties as a research-based or esoteric miracle, and by others still – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of darkness; an insult that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be removed or preserved is escalating in importance.

Like His Dark Materials, our protagonist's deeds, and her future, are demonstrated to be inextricably entwined with the future of the world

In its predecessor, these narratives ran broadly in parallel. In the conclusion, they come together. Similar to the first trilogy, Lyra's choices and her fate are shown to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the realm. Her individual mission to reconnect with her companion and rediscover her imagination becomes the key struggle in a broader war with an oppressive system which, as such authorities often attempt, is seeking to suppress freedom of reason, creativity and culture: all the inner, defiant ways in which humans can be independent.

Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts

The story begins with the finding of a collection of unusual fissures in the fabric of the planet's sky: gateways that appear to give on to other worlds. One such portal seems to be the source of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The Magisterium, with its leader at its head, designates these openings as a challenge to the church's doctrine and aims to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to shift from strict logic and revert to instinct, yet, her certainty that these locations must be preserved – that what they stand for and what they provide is somehow crucial – increases. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a poetic tussle between purity and knowledge is prepared.

Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution

At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the