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Tings are collapsing in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a realm that appears, here more than ever, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from governments, and accumulating in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of corporations, the hands of crowds. "Something is at work, silently, very subtly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and durable are deteriorating and failing."

The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey

Precisely what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which continues where the previous book concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final excursion into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling realm he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography maps on to that of this world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the people appear and think and behave like us, but are joined by external spirits, essences in beast form; where the heavens are filled with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, vehicles are taken and tea is sipped, and mature academics carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still distinctly the spiky and determined heroine of the earlier books, but more mature, melancholic, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is intensified by her split from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

Pan's decision to go off in quest of that innocent part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an quality which he represents as her "vision"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which followed Lyra undertake a wandering trek across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and peril on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in play, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's masterfully eerie incarnation of strict, bureaucratic evil – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's relative, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of head of the church's High Council, and is intent on using his fresh power to expand the religion's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who saved baby Lyra to safety along a overflowing river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is assigned to Geneva to learn more about Delamare's aims. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and precious botanical extract which appears mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and economic upheaval spreading out from the region. The oil is viewed by certain groups as a commercial commodity, by alternate groups as a scientific or mystical miracle, and by yet others – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of darkness; an affront that must be obliterated. The question of where it comes from, its significance, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.

As in the first series, the heroine's decisions, and her future, are shown to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the universe

In the previous volume, these narratives ran largely in tandem. In the conclusion, they converge. As in His Dark Materials, the protagonist's actions and her fate are unveiled to be inextricably entwined with the future of the realm. Her individual journey to reunite with her daemon and rediscover her imagination becomes the primary struggle in a broader conflict with an controlling system which, as these systems often attempt, is seeking to suppress independence of thinking, creativity and art: all the personal, defiant ways in which people can be free.

Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles

The book opens with the unveiling of a collection of unusual cracks in the makeup of the world's sky: portals that appear to lead to alternate realities. One such portal manifests to be the origin of the highly contested botanical substance. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its helm, classifies these portals as a problem to the institution's doctrine and endeavors to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from rigid rationalism and return to intuition, however, her belief that these sites must be preserved – that their meaning and what they offer is somehow crucial – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a poetic struggle between innocence and maturity is set.

Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth

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