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Things are falling apart in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that manifests, here more than ever, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Organizations are failing, or restructuring themselves along new and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is draining from governments, and pooling in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of conglomerates, the grasp of crowds. "Something is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and solid are weakening and collapsing."

Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path

Exactly what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that drives this final volume, which continues where the previous book left off. This is, by all accounts, the author's final venture into the elaborately built, deeply captivating world he first revealed 30 years ago, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose terrain aligns with that of this world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the individuals look and reason and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, souls in creature form; where the air are teeming with witches and mythical beasts, but below, buses are taken and tea is consumed, and middle-aged academics carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still clearly the sharp and determined protagonist of the previous installments, but more mature, melancholic, more cautious, more doubtful. This circumscription is heightened by her division from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.

Merging Narratives

His choice to depart in search of that innocent part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an trait which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which chronicled Lyra undertake a wandering voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with amazement and peril on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the faith's governing authority, and the author's masterfully eerie representation of rigid, procedural malice – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – Lyra's relative, who blames her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of head of the authority's governing body, and is determined on using his newfound authority to broaden the religion's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who saved baby the heroine to refuge along a swollen river as an young boy in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in espionage: he is assigned to a key location to find out more about Delamare's intentions. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and costly rose oil which seems in some way to be the source of a social and financial upheaval emanating out from that area. The substance is seen by certain groups as a commercial good, by different parties as a scientific or esoteric miracle, and by others still – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a source of evil; an challenge that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its source, its meaning, and if it should be destroyed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.

Similar to the first series, the heroine's decisions, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inseparably connected with the destiny of the realm

In its predecessor, these storylines ran largely in parallel. In the conclusion, they merge. Similar to His Dark Materials, her choices and her path are shown to be inseparably entwined with the destiny of the world. Her private quest to rejoin with her companion and regain her creativity becomes the primary conflict in a broader battle with an oppressive regime which, as such authorities often attempt, is striving to quell autonomy of thought, originality and expression: all the personal, defiant ways in which individuals can be free.

Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles

The book opens with the finding of a series of strange fissures in the structure of the Earth's sky: gateways that look to give on to different dimensions. An example of a window appears to be the source of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The church, with its leader at its helm, labels these openings as a challenge to the church's beliefs and sets out to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to move from inflexible rationalism and return to instinct, however, her conviction that these places must be defended – that what they stand for and what they offer is mysteriously vital – strengthens. "Dust, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a Blakean tussle between purity and experience is prepared.

Story Tempo and Personal Evolution

At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the