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Tings are unraveling in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a world that seems, now more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from states, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of conglomerates, the grasp of mobs. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and strong are weakening and giving way."

Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey

Just what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that animates The Rose Field, which continues where its predecessor concluded. This is, according to many, the author's concluding excursion into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling world he first introduced in the distant past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a world whose geography corresponds to that of our world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the people look and reason and behave like us, but are joined by daemons, souls in beast form; where the heavens are populated with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but below, buses are caught and tea is consumed, and middle-aged scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still distinctly the spiky and determined main character of the earlier books, but older, melancholic, more cautious, less certain. This restraint is intensified by her division from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.

Merging Narratives

Pan's decision to leave in search of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque trek across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with marvel and danger on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in motion, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the faith's controlling power, and the author's masterfully eerie incarnation of strict, administrative wickedness – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the position of leader of the Magisterium's governing body, and is intent on using his fresh influence to broaden the religion's rule. Another protagonist, who rescued baby the heroine to security along a swollen river as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in espionage: he is assigned to the city to discover more about Delamare's plans. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and costly essential oil which manifests in some way to be the origin of a societal and financial crisis emanating out from that area. The substance is seen by various factions as a marketable good, by others as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by further factions – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a source of malevolence; an insult that must be eradicated. The question of its source, its significance, and if it should be destroyed or preserved is coming rapidly to the fore.

Like His Dark Materials, our protagonist's actions, and her destiny, are shown to be deeply linked with the future of the universe

In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran largely in tandem. In The Rose Field, they converge. Like His Dark Materials, her actions and her path are unveiled to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the realm. Her private quest to rejoin with her soul and rediscover her vision becomes the primary conflict in a larger conflict with an oppressive system which, as these systems always have, is seeking to quell autonomy of thinking, creativity and art: all the personal, defiant ways in which individuals can be liberated.

Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles

The novel opens with the unveiling of a set of curious openings in the structure of the world's air: windows that appear to open into other worlds. An example of a portal manifests to be the source of the highly contested mystical extract. The Magisterium, with its leader at its leadership, labels these windows as a challenge to the church's doctrine and sets out to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from rigid reason and return to feeling, however, her conviction that these places must be protected – that what they stand for and their value is in some way vital – strengthens. "Dust, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or whatever we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a poetic conflict between innocence and experience is set.

Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth

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