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Tings are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that seems, here more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reorganizing themselves along new and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from governments, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the grasp of mobs. "Some force is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says trader a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and solid are faltering and failing."

Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path

Exactly what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that drives The Rose Field, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, reportedly, Pullman's concluding venture into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling universe he first introduced three decades past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography corresponds to that of this world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and think and behave like us, but are joined by external spirits, essences in animal form; where the heavens are filled with enchantresses and gryphons, but underneath, buses are caught and drinks is drunk, and older academics carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the prequel, the origin story with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the sharp and determined main character of the prior volumes, but more mature, sadder, more careful, more doubtful. This circumscription is intensified by her separation from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

The daemon's resolve to go off in pursuit of that childlike part of her which she seems to have lost (an trait which he represents as her "imagination"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with amazement and danger on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the religious ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling embodiment of rigid, bureaucratic malice – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's family member, who blames her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the role of head of the authority's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound power to expand the church's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who saved infant Lyra to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an child in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in intelligence work: he is dispatched to the city to find out more about the antagonist's plans. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and precious botanical extract which manifests somehow to be the cause of a societal and financial disturbance spreading out from Central Asia. The substance is viewed by some as a marketable good, by others as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by further factions – the extremist "highland figures" – as a wellspring of evil; an insult that must be obliterated. The question of where it comes from, its significance, and whether it should be removed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.

Like the first series, our protagonist's actions, and her destiny, are shown to be inseparably entwined with the fate of the universe

In the previous volume, these plots ran largely in tandem. In this final book, they merge. Like His Dark Materials, her movements and her fate are revealed to be inextricably woven with the future of the realm. Her personal journey to reconnect with her soul and rediscover her vision becomes the primary struggle in a broader conflict with an authoritarian system which, as such authorities always have, is attempting to stifle freedom of reason, originality and art: all the inner, defiant ways in which humans can be liberated.

Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles

The novel starts with the unveiling of a set of unusual fissures in the fabric of the Earth's air: gateways that appear to lead to different dimensions. One such portal manifests to be the source of the much debated mystical extract. The Magisterium, with its leader at its leadership, classifies these portals as a problem to the religion's doctrine and endeavors to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to move from rigid logic and return to intuition, yet, her belief that these places must be preserved – that what they stand for and what they offer is in some way essential – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we name it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a Blakean tussle between innocence and knowledge is set.

Narrative Pacing and Character Development

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