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Tings are falling apart in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a world that appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reassembling themselves along new and troubling lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from governments, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the vaults of business empires, the control of rioters. "Something is at work, very quietly, gradually", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and durable are weakening and failing."

Key Puzzle and Her Quest

Precisely what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that animates the concluding book, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, by all accounts, the author's last excursion into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting realm he first introduced in the distant past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose terrain corresponds to that of our world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, souls in beast form; where the air are populated with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, buses are caught and drinks is sipped, and mature scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still distinctly the spiky and determined main character of the previous installments, but older, sadder, warier, more doubtful. This restraint is amplified by her division from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

His choice to depart in quest of that youthful part of her which she may have forgotten (an quality which he represents as her "vision"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with wonder and risk on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in action, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the religious governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling incarnation of strict, bureaucratic malice – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. The antagonist – our protagonist's relative, who faults her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the role of president of the authority's High Council, and is determined on using his recently acquired power to broaden the religion's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued infant the heroine to security along a overflowing river as an child in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in espionage: he is assigned to the city to discover more about Delamare's aims. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which manifests in some way to be the source of a social and financial upheaval spreading out from that area. The oil is seen by various factions as a marketable product, by alternate groups as a empirical or spiritual phenomenon, and by further factions – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an affront that must be destroyed. The issue of its origins, its significance, and if it should be removed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.

Similar to His Dark Materials, the heroine's decisions, and her future, are demonstrated to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the world

In its predecessor, these storylines ran largely in tandem. In The Rose Field, they come together. Similar to the first trilogy, the protagonist's choices and her path are shown to be inextricably linked with the future of the world. Her private mission to reunite with her companion and regain her vision becomes the primary conflict in a wider conflict with an authoritarian regime which, as such authorities always have, is seeking to quell autonomy of reason, innovation and culture: all the inner, resistant ways in which humans can be free.

Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts

The novel starts with the unveiling of a series of curious cracks in the makeup of the Earth's air: portals that look to give on to alternate realities. One such portal manifests to be the point of the highly contested mystical extract. The authority, with its leader at its head, designates these openings as a threat to the church's doctrine and sets out to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to shift from rigid logic and back to feeling, yet, her conviction that these locations must be protected – that their meaning and what they offer is in some way essential – increases. "The substance, or the extract, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a philosophical struggle between naivety and knowledge is set.

Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution

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