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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 appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from governments, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the vaults of conglomerates, the grasp of rioters. "Something is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says trader a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and solid are weakening and giving way."

Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path

Exactly what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that animates this final volume, which resumes where its predecessor left off. This is, reportedly, the author's last foray into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling realm he first introduced 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose terrain aligns with that of the real world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the humans look and think and behave like us, but are paired by animal souls, souls in beast form; where the skies are teeming with witches and gryphons, but underneath, vehicles are ridden and drinks is drunk, and mature scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the first volume, the origin story with which the author began this trilogy, is now a adult: still clearly the sharp and persistent heroine of the prior volumes, but older, more sorrowful, more cautious, less certain. This limitation is amplified by her separation from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

The daemon's resolve to go off in quest of that innocent part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an quality which he represents as her "imagination"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with marvel and peril on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in action, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's masterfully eerie embodiment of rigid, administrative malice – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. The antagonist – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the office of president of the church's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his recently acquired authority to broaden the institution's rule. Another protagonist, who saved young Lyra to security along a swollen river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a sideline in spycraft: he is sent to a key location to learn more about his plans. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and valuable botanical extract which appears somehow to be the origin of a social and financial upheaval emanating out from that area. The extract is regarded by some as a commercial good, by alternate groups as a research-based or spiritual wonder, and by yet others – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an challenge that must be destroyed. The dilemma of where it comes from, its meaning, and if it should be destroyed or preserved is coming rapidly to the fore.

As in His Dark Materials, Lyra'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 merge. Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's choices and her path are unveiled to be inextricably woven with the future of the realm. Her individual quest to rejoin with her companion and recover her vision becomes the key battleground in a larger conflict with an oppressive regime which, as such regimes often attempt, is seeking to stifle autonomy of thought, originality and art: all the inner, rebellious ways in which humans can be free.

Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles

The story opens with the finding of a set of strange fissures in the fabric of the planet's sky: gateways that look to open into alternate realities. An example of a window appears to be the point of the much debated rose oil. The authority, with Delamare at its leadership, labels these openings as a threat to the institution's beliefs and sets out to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to move from strict rationalism and back to intuition, nevertheless, her belief that these locations must be defended – that what they stand for and what they offer is somehow vital – strengthens. "Dust, or the substance, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a philosophical conflict between innocence and maturity is established.

Story Tempo and Character Development

At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the