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Things are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a realm that seems, in this volume especially, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from states, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the hands of mobs. "Some force is at work, stealthily, gradually", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and strong are faltering and collapsing."

The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey

Precisely what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that propels this final volume, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, by all accounts, the author's final venture into the elaborately built, deeply captivating world he first unveiled in the distant past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the humans look and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, essences in animal form; where the heavens are filled with enchantresses and gryphons, but beneath those skies, vehicles are ridden and drinks is drunk, and mature scholars carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a adult: still recognisably the prickly and tenacious protagonist of the previous installments, but more mature, more sorrowful, more cautious, less certain. This limitation is amplified by her division from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

His choice to go off in quest of that childlike part of her which she appears to have shed (an trait which he represents as her "imagination"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with marvel and peril on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in action, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the church's controlling power, and Pullman's masterfully eerie incarnation of austere, procedural malice – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's relative, who blames her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the office of head of the authority's governing body, and is determined on using his fresh power to broaden the church's dominium. A key character, who rescued infant the heroine to safety along a swollen river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a secondary role in espionage: he is sent to the city to learn more about his aims. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and valuable essential oil which appears somehow to be the source of a societal and economic disturbance spreading out from Central Asia. The substance is regarded by some as a tradeable good, by others as a research-based or esoteric wonder, and by yet others – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an affront that must be destroyed. The question of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be removed or protected is escalating in importance.

Like the first series, Lyra's decisions, and her future, are demonstrated to be inextricably linked with the fate of the universe

In the previous volume, these storylines ran largely in side by side. In The Rose Field, they come together. Like His Dark Materials, her movements and her path are unveiled to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the world. Her personal journey to reunite with her soul and rediscover her creativity becomes the central struggle in a larger war with an oppressive government which, as such authorities typically do, is attempting to quell autonomy of thinking, originality and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which humans can be independent.

Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles

The story begins with the unveiling of a set of curious cracks in the structure of the Earth's atmosphere: portals that look to open into alternate realities. An example of a portal seems to be the point of the highly contested rose oil. The authority, with the antagonist at its leadership, labels these portals as a challenge to the institution's orthodoxy and endeavors to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to move from strict logic and return to instinct, nevertheless, her belief that these sites must be defended – that what they stand for and what they offer is mysteriously vital – strengthens. "Dust, or the extract, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or whatever we label it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a philosophical conflict between naivety and maturity is prepared.

Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth

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