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Things are unraveling in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a universe that manifests, here more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along new and troubling lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from governments, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the vaults of conglomerates, the control of rioters. "Some force is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and strong are weakening and collapsing."

Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey

Precisely what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that propels this final volume, which picks up where the previous book left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final excursion into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating world he first revealed in the distant past, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose landscape maps on to that of this world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the people appear and think and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, essences in beast form; where the air are filled with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, vehicles are taken and tea is sipped, and older academics carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the prickly and persistent main character of the earlier books, but more mature, sadder, more cautious, less sure. This circumscription is amplified by her separation from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

The daemon's resolve to leave in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he represents as her "creativity"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a wandering voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with wonder and risk on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the faith's governing authority, and the author's brilliantly sinister incarnation of austere, procedural evil – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's family member, who faults her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of leader of the authority's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound power to extend the church's control. A key character, who rescued infant Lyra to safety along a swollen river as an young boy in the first book, is now an university scholar with a sideline in spycraft: he is sent to a key location to find out more about the antagonist's aims. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and precious essential oil which seems somehow to be the source of a social and financial crisis spreading out from that area. The oil is seen by various factions as a marketable commodity, by others as a research-based or esoteric phenomenon, and by others still – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a source of darkness; an challenge that must be destroyed. The issue of its source, its significance, and whether it should be destroyed or preserved is coming rapidly to the fore.

Similar to the original trilogy, Lyra's deeds, and her future, are shown to be deeply connected with the future of the realm

In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran mostly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they merge. As in the first trilogy, Lyra's choices and her path are shown to be inseparably woven with the future of the universe. Her personal quest to reconnect with her companion and recover her creativity becomes the key conflict in a larger war with an authoritarian system which, as these systems always have, is attempting to suppress independence of thinking, creativity and culture: all the personal, defiant ways in which humans can be liberated.

Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts

The novel begins with the finding of a collection of unusual cracks in the structure of the planet's sky: windows that appear to open into different dimensions. An example of a portal manifests to be the source of the highly contested mystical extract. The church, with its leader at its leadership, classifies these openings as a problem to the institution's beliefs and sets out to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from inflexible reason and return to intuition, yet, her conviction that these places must be preserved – that what they stand for and their value is mysteriously essential – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a Blakean struggle between innocence and knowledge is set.

Narrative Pacing and Character Development

At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the