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Things are falling apart in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that appears, now more than ever, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reassembling themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is draining from states, and accumulating in the halls of religious leaders, the treasuries of corporations, the hands of crowds. "An element is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says merchant a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his post in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and solid are faltering and collapsing."

The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path

Just what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that animates The Rose Field, which picks up where the previous book left off. This is, reportedly, the author's final foray into the elaborately built, deeply captivating world he first introduced three decades past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose geography aligns with that of this world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the people appear and reason and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, beings in animal form; where the skies are teeming with witches and gryphons, but below, vehicles are ridden and tea is drunk, and middle-aged scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the prequel, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still clearly the sharp and persistent protagonist of the previous installments, but older, sadder, more careful, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her separation from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

Pan's decision to depart in search of that youthful part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an quality which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and danger on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in action, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the religious controlling power, and the author's masterfully eerie incarnation of strict, bureaucratic malice – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's family member, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the role of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is set on using his recently acquired influence to extend the church's rule. A key character, who rescued young Lyra to security along a flooded river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in espionage: he is assigned to Geneva to learn more about the antagonist's plans. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and valuable rose oil which seems mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and economic upheaval spreading out from Central Asia. The substance is viewed by certain groups as a marketable commodity, by alternate groups as a empirical or esoteric wonder, and by further factions – the zealous "highland figures" – as a origin of evil; an challenge that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its origins, its significance, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is coming rapidly to the fore.

As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's deeds, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be deeply entwined with the future of the realm

In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran mostly in parallel. In the conclusion, they merge. Like the original series, the protagonist's choices and her path are unveiled to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the world. Her individual quest to reunite with her soul and rediscover her imagination becomes the key conflict in a larger war with an controlling system which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to quell freedom of thinking, creativity and culture: all the personal, defiant ways in which people can be independent.

Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts

The story opens with the finding of a set of strange openings in the fabric of the planet's sky: portals that appear to give on to other worlds. An example of a portal seems to be the origin of the highly contested botanical substance. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its leadership, designates these openings as a problem to the church's doctrine and endeavors to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from rigid reason and back to instinct, however, her belief that these places must be defended – that their significance and what they offer is mysteriously vital – grows. "The substance, or rose oil, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a poetic tussle between innocence and maturity is set.

Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution

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