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Tings are falling apart in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that seems, in this volume especially, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or restructuring themselves along new and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of conglomerates, the control of crowds. "Something is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Things we thought were secure and durable are deteriorating and failing."

The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey

Precisely what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that propels The Rose Field, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, reportedly, the author's final excursion into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating realm he first introduced 30 years ago, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose geography maps on to that of our world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the humans look and reason and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, beings in animal form; where the skies are teeming with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but below, buses are caught and tea is drunk, and older professors carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still clearly the sharp and persistent heroine of the earlier books, but more mature, melancholic, more cautious, less certain. This limitation is heightened by her separation from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

His choice to leave in search of that childlike part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an trait which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with wonder and peril on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the faith's controlling power, and the author's masterfully eerie representation of rigid, procedural malice – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. The antagonist – Lyra's uncle, who blames her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the role of leader of the authority's governing body, and is set on using his newfound influence to extend the religion's rule. Another protagonist, who saved infant the heroine to safety along a overflowing river as an young boy in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in spycraft: he is dispatched to Geneva to find out more about Delamare's plans. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and costly rose oil which seems mysteriously to be the origin of a social and financial crisis spreading out from that area. The substance is seen by certain groups as a marketable commodity, by others as a research-based or esoteric miracle, and by others still – the extremist "highland figures" – as a wellspring of darkness; an affront that must be obliterated. The question of its origins, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or protected is escalating in importance.

As in the first series, our protagonist's decisions, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inextricably linked with the fate of the universe

In its predecessor, these plots ran largely in parallel. In this final book, they converge. As in the original series, the protagonist's movements and her destiny are shown to be inextricably entwined with the future of the universe. Her personal mission to reunite with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the primary conflict in a wider battle with an controlling system which, as these systems typically do, is striving to suppress autonomy of thought, originality and culture: all the inner, resistant ways in which people can be liberated.

Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts

The book begins with the discovery of a set of curious openings in the fabric of the planet's sky: gateways that seem to give on to different dimensions. An example of a portal manifests to be the origin of the highly contested rose oil. The church, with the antagonist at its helm, classifies these portals as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and sets out to destroy them. As the heroine begins to shift from inflexible logic and revert to intuition, nevertheless, her conviction that these places must be defended – that what they stand for and what they provide is mysteriously vital – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a philosophical conflict between purity and maturity is set.

Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth

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