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Things are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a realm that seems, now more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along new and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from authorities, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the hands of rioters. "An element is at work, stealthily, gradually", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and durable are deteriorating and failing."

Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path

Exactly what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that animates this final volume, which resumes where the previous book ended. This is, reportedly, Pullman's last venture into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting realm he first unveiled in the distant past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a world whose landscape maps on to that of the real world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals look and think and act like us, but are joined by daemons, essences in beast form; where the heavens are filled with sorceresses and gryphons, but beneath those skies, vehicles are ridden and drinks is sipped, and older scholars carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the prequel, the introductory book with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still distinctly the prickly and determined heroine of the prior volumes, but older, more sorrowful, warier, less sure. This limitation is heightened 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 depart in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with marvel and danger on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the church's ruling body, and the author's masterfully eerie representation of austere, bureaucratic evil – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's uncle, who blames her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the role of head of the authority's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his fresh power to extend the church's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who saved infant the heroine to refuge along a swollen Thames as an child in the first book, is now an academic with a secondary role in espionage: he is sent to Geneva to discover more about the antagonist's plans. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and costly rose oil which appears mysteriously to be the source of a societal and financial upheaval rippling out from that area. The extract is seen by various factions as a commercial commodity, by alternate groups as a empirical or esoteric wonder, and by yet others – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a origin of darkness; an challenge that must be eradicated. The question of its source, its significance, and if it should be eliminated or safeguarded is becoming urgent.

Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions, and her future, are revealed to be inseparably connected with the destiny of the world

In the previous volume, these storylines ran mostly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they converge. As in the original series, her movements and her path are shown to be inseparably woven with the destiny of the universe. Her individual mission to reunite with her daemon and regain her imagination becomes the primary struggle in a wider battle with an controlling regime which, as such regimes often attempt, is striving to stifle freedom of thinking, originality and expression: all the inner, defiant ways in which individuals can be liberated.

Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts

The book starts with the unveiling of a set of curious cracks in the makeup of the planet's air: windows that look to lead to different dimensions. A particular portal seems to be the origin of the highly contested botanical substance. The church, with the antagonist at its leadership, designates these windows as a challenge to the institution's orthodoxy and endeavors to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from strict logic and revert to instinct, yet, her belief that these sites must be defended – that their significance and what they provide is somehow essential – strengthens. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a poetic tussle between innocence and maturity is prepared.

Story Tempo and Personal Evolution

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