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Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a realm that manifests, in this volume especially, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reorganizing themselves along new and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is draining from states, and gathering in the offices of religious leaders, the vaults of business empires, the hands of crowds. "Some force is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and solid are deteriorating and giving way."

Key Puzzle and Her Quest

Just what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's last foray into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating realm he first revealed in the distant past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a world whose landscape corresponds to that of our world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans look and think and behave like us, but are joined by external spirits, souls in animal form; where the air are teeming with witches and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, transports are taken and tea is consumed, and mature academics carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which Pullman began the series, is now a adult: still distinctly the sharp and tenacious protagonist of the earlier books, but more mature, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her division from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

The daemon's resolve to depart in search of that youthful part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which saw Lyra undertake a adventurous voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with wonder and risk on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the religious governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling embodiment of rigid, procedural malice – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's family member, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the role of leader of the Magisterium's High Council, and is intent on using his recently acquired authority to extend the religion's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who carried baby Lyra to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in espionage: he is sent to the city to learn more about his intentions. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and valuable botanical extract which appears mysteriously to be the origin of a social and financial upheaval spreading out from the region. The extract is viewed by certain groups as a commercial product, by others as a scientific or spiritual miracle, and by further factions – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a source of evil; an affront that must be destroyed. The dilemma of its origins, its significance, and if it should be destroyed or protected is escalating in importance.

As in the original trilogy, the heroine's deeds, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inseparably entwined with the fate of the world

In the previous volume, these storylines ran mostly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they converge. Similar to the first trilogy, the protagonist's actions and her path are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the universe. Her private quest to rejoin with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the key struggle in a wider conflict with an controlling system which, as such regimes always have, is seeking to stifle autonomy of reason, innovation and art: all the personal, defiant ways in which individuals can be liberated.

Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles

The book begins with the finding of a collection of curious cracks in the makeup of the planet's sky: portals that appear to lead to different dimensions. An example of a opening manifests to be the source of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The authority, with its leader at its leadership, designates these portals as a challenge to the institution's beliefs and aims to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from inflexible rationalism and revert to instinct, nevertheless, her belief that these sites must be defended – that what they stand for and what they provide is somehow essential – increases. "The substance, or the extract, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or whatever we call it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a poetic struggle between purity and experience is prepared.

Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth

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