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Things are falling apart in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's masterful trilogies set in a world that seems, now more than ever, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from states, and gathering in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of business empires, the hands of mobs. "Some force is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his seat in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and solid are faltering and giving way."

Key Puzzle and Her Quest

Precisely what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which resumes where its predecessor ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's last foray into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating realm he first introduced in the distant past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography maps on to that of this world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, souls in animal form; where the air are filled with sorceresses and gryphons, but underneath, buses are taken and beverages is drunk, and middle-aged professors carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a child 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 spiky and persistent main character of the earlier books, but older, melancholic, warier, less certain. This restraint is amplified by her separation from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

The daemon's resolve to go off in quest of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an quality which he represents as her "creativity"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with wonder and danger on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the religious governing authority, and Pullman's masterfully eerie incarnation of strict, procedural wickedness – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. The antagonist – the heroine's family member, who faults her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the role of leader of the church's governing body, and is determined on using his fresh authority to expand the church's rule. Another protagonist, who rescued baby the heroine to refuge along a flooded river as an child in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in espionage: he is assigned to Geneva to learn more about Delamare's intentions. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and costly essential oil which seems in some way to be the origin of a social and financial upheaval emanating out from that area. The extract is seen by certain groups as a commercial commodity, by different parties as a scientific or esoteric phenomenon, and by others still – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a source of darkness; an insult that must be destroyed. The question of its origins, what it stands for, and whether it should be eliminated or preserved is becoming urgent.

As in the first series, our protagonist's deeds, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inseparably connected with the future of the realm

In the previous volume, these plots ran largely in side by side. In the conclusion, they come together. Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's choices and her destiny are revealed to be inseparably entwined with the future of the universe. Her individual mission to reconnect with her daemon and recover her vision becomes the primary struggle in a larger conflict with an controlling government which, as such authorities often attempt, is striving to stifle autonomy of thought, innovation and culture: all the inner, defiant ways in which humans can be independent.

Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles

The book begins with the discovery of a set of unusual openings in the structure of the Earth's sky: gateways that look to open into different dimensions. A particular opening manifests to be the origin of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The authority, with its leader at its helm, designates these portals as a threat to the church's beliefs and endeavors to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from strict reason and revert to feeling, however, her conviction that these sites must be defended – that their significance and what they offer is somehow vital – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a Blakean tussle between innocence and maturity is set.

Story Tempo and Character Development

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