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Things are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a world that manifests, here more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from states, and pooling in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the hands of crowds. "An element is at work, very quietly, gradually", says trader a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and strong are weakening and failing."

Core Enigma and Her Quest

Precisely what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that animates the concluding book, which picks up where the previous book left off. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's final venture into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling world he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose geography maps on to that of this world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and behave like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, essences in beast form; where the skies are filled with witches and legendary creatures, but underneath, transports are taken and drinks is drunk, and mature scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the first volume, the origin story with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still distinctly the prickly and tenacious main character of the previous installments, but older, more sorrowful, more cautious, less certain. This circumscription is intensified by her split from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

Pan's decision to depart in search of that youthful part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an trait which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a picaresque journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, meeting with amazement and peril on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the faith's controlling power, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister incarnation of rigid, bureaucratic evil – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's family member, who faults her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the position of head of the Magisterium's governing body, and is determined on using his newfound power to expand the institution's rule. Another protagonist, who rescued infant Lyra to safety along a overflowing Thames as an child in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in spycraft: he is assigned to the city to learn more about the antagonist's plans. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and valuable essential oil which appears mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and economic upheaval emanating out from Central Asia. The substance is regarded by certain groups as a commercial product, by different parties as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by further factions – the zealous "highland figures" – as a wellspring of evil; an challenge that must be destroyed. The dilemma of where it comes from, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.

Like His Dark Materials, the heroine's decisions, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the universe

In the previous volume, these storylines ran largely in parallel. In this final book, they come together. Like His Dark Materials, the protagonist's movements and her path are shown to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the world. Her private journey to reconnect with her daemon and rediscover her creativity becomes the primary conflict in a wider war with an authoritarian regime which, as such regimes often attempt, is attempting to stifle independence of thinking, originality and art: all the inner, defiant ways in which people can be independent.

Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles

The book starts with the discovery of a series of curious openings in the makeup of the Earth's sky: portals that look to lead to alternate realities. An example of a opening appears to be the origin of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The Magisterium, with its leader at its leadership, designates these portals as a challenge to the church's doctrine and sets out to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from inflexible logic and revert to instinct, yet, her belief that these sites must be protected – that what they stand for and what they offer is mysteriously crucial – strengthens. "The substance, or the substance, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a poetic conflict between innocence and experience is prepared.

Plot Rhythm and Character Development

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