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Things are collapsing in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that appears, in this volume especially, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is draining from authorities, and pooling in the chambers of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the grasp of mobs. "An element is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says merchant a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and strong are weakening and collapsing."

The Central Mystery and Her Quest

Exactly what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final foray into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating universe he first unveiled in the distant past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose terrain maps on to that of our world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and think and act like us, but are paired by daemons, essences in creature form; where the heavens are populated with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, transports are taken and drinks is consumed, and middle-aged professors carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still distinctly the sharp and persistent protagonist of the previous installments, but aged, more sorrowful, warier, less certain. This circumscription is heightened by her division from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

His choice to leave in search of that childlike part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he represents as her "vision"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, meeting with marvel and danger on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in play, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the faith's ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling embodiment of strict, procedural evil – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's relative, who faults her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of president of the Magisterium's governing body, and is set on using his newfound authority to broaden the institution's control. A key character, who carried infant Lyra to security along a overflowing Thames as an child in the first book, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is assigned to a key location to find out more about his aims. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and costly essential oil which manifests in some way to be the source of a societal and economic disturbance spreading out from that area. The substance is regarded by some as a tradeable good, by different parties as a scientific or mystical phenomenon, and by yet others – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an challenge that must be eradicated. The question of its origins, its significance, and if it should be removed or protected is becoming urgent.

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

In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran broadly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they merge. As in the original series, the protagonist's actions and her path are shown to be inextricably woven with the destiny of the world. Her private journey to reconnect with her daemon and rediscover her imagination becomes the key battleground in a larger war with an authoritarian system which, as such regimes often attempt, is striving to suppress freedom of thinking, creativity and art: all the internal, defiant ways in which individuals can be independent.

Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles

The story opens with the finding of a set of strange openings in the structure of the planet's air: portals that appear to open into other worlds. One such window appears to be the source of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The church, with Delamare at its helm, designates these windows as a threat to the institution's doctrine and sets out to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to move from rigid logic and revert to intuition, nevertheless, her conviction that these places must be protected – that what they stand for and their value is mysteriously vital – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a poetic conflict between purity and experience is established.

Story Tempo and Character Development

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