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Things are collapsing in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a realm that appears, now more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or restructuring themselves along novel and troubling lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from governments, and pooling in the halls of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the hands of mobs. "An element is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says trader a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and durable are faltering and collapsing."

Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey

Exactly what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that drives The Rose Field, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, according to many, the author's final foray into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting realm he first introduced in the distant past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose terrain corresponds to that of this world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and think and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, beings in animal form; where the air are filled with witches and gryphons, but beneath those skies, buses are ridden and tea is drunk, and middle-aged academics carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a child in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still recognisably the sharp and tenacious heroine of the prior volumes, but more mature, melancholic, more careful, more doubtful. This limitation is amplified by her split from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.

Merging Narratives

Pan's decision to depart in search of that childlike part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an trait which he represents as her "imagination"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, meeting with amazement and danger on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in play, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the faith's controlling power, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of strict, bureaucratic wickedness – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's family member, who faults her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the role of head of the Magisterium's governing body, and is intent on using his recently acquired authority to expand the church's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued infant Lyra to security along a swollen river as an young boy in the first book, is now an university scholar with a sideline in spycraft: he is dispatched to a key location to discover more about his intentions. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and valuable botanical extract which appears somehow to be the source of a social and economic disturbance emanating out from the region. The substance is viewed by certain groups as a tradeable product, by alternate groups as a scientific or esoteric miracle, and by others still – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a source of evil; an challenge that must be destroyed. The question of its source, its significance, and whether it should be eliminated or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.

Similar to the first series, the heroine's deeds, and her future, are shown to be deeply linked with the fate of the world

In the previous volume, these plots ran largely in tandem. In this final book, they converge. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's movements and her destiny are unveiled to be inextricably woven with the fate of the world. Her personal quest to reunite with her daemon and rediscover her imagination becomes the central struggle in a larger war with an authoritarian government which, as such authorities always have, is striving to stifle freedom of reason, creativity and art: all the personal, rebellious ways in which humans can be independent.

Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles

The book opens with the finding of a series of strange openings in the fabric of the planet's air: gateways that seem to lead to alternate realities. A particular portal appears to be the origin of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The authority, with its leader at its helm, designates these portals as a challenge to the church's orthodoxy and endeavors to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to shift from rigid rationalism and back to intuition, however, her belief that these locations must be defended – that what they stand for and their value is in some way essential – grows. "The substance, or the extract, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a Blakean tussle between innocence and knowledge is prepared.

Story Tempo and Personal Evolution

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