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Things are falling apart in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a world that manifests, here more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from authorities, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the control of mobs. "Some force is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were secure and solid are deteriorating and giving way."

Key Puzzle and Her Quest

Just what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that drives The Rose Field, which picks up where the previous book left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's final venture into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling realm he first revealed in the distant past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose terrain aligns with that of our world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the people look and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, souls in creature form; where the air are populated with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but below, buses are ridden and tea is drunk, and middle-aged scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a adult: still recognisably the sharp and tenacious protagonist of the prior volumes, but aged, more sorrowful, warier, less sure. This limitation is amplified by her split from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

His choice to leave in search of that innocent part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an trait which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with amazement and risk on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in play, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the faith's ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of rigid, bureaucratic wickedness – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's uncle, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the position of president of the Magisterium's governing body, and is set on using his newfound influence to broaden the institution's control. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued baby Lyra to safety along a swollen river as an child in the first book, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is sent to the city to find out more about Delamare's aims. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and costly botanical extract which seems somehow to be the origin of a social and financial crisis spreading out from the region. The substance is regarded by certain groups as a tradeable good, by alternate groups as a research-based or esoteric miracle, and by others still – the extremist "highland figures" – as a wellspring of evil; an insult that must be eradicated. The question of its source, its significance, and whether it should be destroyed or preserved is escalating in importance.

Like the original trilogy, the heroine's decisions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the realm

In its predecessor, these plots ran largely in side by side. In The Rose Field, they converge. Like the original series, Lyra's actions and her path are revealed to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the universe. Her personal mission to rejoin with her companion and regain her creativity becomes the central struggle in a larger battle with an authoritarian government which, as such authorities typically do, is seeking to suppress independence of thought, originality and culture: all the internal, resistant ways in which humans can be free.

Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles

The book opens with the unveiling of a collection of unusual cracks in the fabric of the world's atmosphere: windows that look to lead to different dimensions. An example of a window manifests to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The church, with Delamare at its head, designates these portals as a threat to the church's orthodoxy and endeavors to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from rigid reason and back to feeling, nevertheless, her conviction that these places must be defended – that their significance and what they offer is somehow vital – increases. "The substance, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a Blakean tussle between innocence and experience is prepared.

Narrative Pacing and Character Development

At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the