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Things are collapsing in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's masterful trilogies set in a realm that manifests, here more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reassembling themselves along novel and troubling lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from states, and gathering in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of conglomerates, the grasp of crowds. "An element is at work, silently, gradually", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and strong are weakening and giving way."

Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path

Precisely what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that animates the concluding book, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, according to many, the author's last foray into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling realm he first revealed 30 years ago, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose terrain maps on to that of this world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and think and act like us, but are joined by animal souls, souls in creature form; where the skies are populated with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, vehicles are caught and beverages is drunk, and mature professors carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still clearly the spiky and persistent main character of the earlier books, but more mature, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her separation from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

The daemon's resolve to depart in search of that innocent part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an trait which he represents as her "creativity"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with amazement and risk on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in motion, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the religious governing authority, and the author's masterfully eerie embodiment of strict, procedural malice – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. The antagonist – our protagonist's family member, who blames her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the office of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his newfound influence to extend the church's control. Another protagonist, who carried infant Lyra to security along a swollen river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a sideline in intelligence work: he is dispatched to a key location to find out more about his plans. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and valuable essential oil which appears somehow to be the source of a societal and economic disturbance spreading out from Central Asia. The oil is viewed by various factions as a tradeable commodity, by different parties as a research-based or mystical phenomenon, and by yet others – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a source of malevolence; an challenge that must be eradicated. The issue of its origins, its meaning, and whether it should be eliminated or safeguarded is escalating in importance.

As in the first series, the heroine's actions, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the realm

In the previous volume, these plots ran broadly in parallel. In the conclusion, they come together. Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's movements and her destiny are unveiled to be inseparably linked with the fate of the universe. Her personal journey to reunite with her daemon and regain her imagination becomes the primary battleground in a broader conflict with an authoritarian system which, as such regimes typically do, is striving to quell freedom of thinking, innovation and culture: all the internal, rebellious ways in which humans can be independent.

Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts

The book opens with the finding of a collection of unusual fissures in the structure of the world's sky: gateways that seem to lead to other worlds. An example of a opening manifests to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The church, with its leader at its leadership, classifies these windows as a threat to the institution's doctrine and sets out to destroy them. As the heroine begins to turn away from strict reason and back to intuition, however, her belief that these places must be preserved – that what they stand for and what they offer is in some way essential – strengthens. "The substance, or the substance, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a Blakean struggle between naivety and knowledge is set.

Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution

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