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Tings are collapsing in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a realm that appears, now more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or restructuring themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from governments, and gathering in the halls of theocrats, the vaults of business empires, the grasp of rioters. "Some force is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and durable are faltering and giving way."

The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path

Exactly what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that propels this final volume, which resumes where its predecessor ended. This is, reportedly, the author's final venture into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting realm he first unveiled in the distant past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose geography corresponds to that of our world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals look and think and behave like us, but are paired by animal souls, souls in beast form; where the skies are populated with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, buses are caught and beverages is drunk, and middle-aged scholars carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still distinctly the prickly and tenacious heroine of the previous installments, but older, sadder, warier, less sure. This limitation is amplified by her split from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

Pan's decision to depart in quest of that childlike part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he represents as her "vision"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a wandering trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, meeting with marvel and danger on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in motion, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the faith's ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of rigid, bureaucratic evil – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – the heroine's family member, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of head of the church's High Council, and is determined on using his fresh authority to broaden the church's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who saved infant Lyra to safety along a flooded Thames as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is sent to a key location to learn more about Delamare's plans. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and valuable essential oil which manifests in some way to be the source of a societal and financial upheaval emanating out from that area. The oil is regarded by some as a tradeable good, by alternate groups as a research-based or esoteric phenomenon, and by further factions – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of evil; an challenge that must be destroyed. The issue of its origins, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is escalating in importance.

Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions, and her fate, are revealed to be inextricably connected with the future of the universe

In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran mostly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they converge. Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's movements and her destiny are unveiled to be deeply woven with the destiny of the universe. Her individual journey to reconnect with her daemon and rediscover her imagination becomes the primary struggle in a broader conflict with an authoritarian regime which, as such authorities often attempt, is striving to suppress autonomy of reason, innovation and expression: all the personal, defiant ways in which people can be independent.

Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles

The novel begins with the finding of a series of unusual cracks in the fabric of the planet's air: windows that seem to lead to other worlds. A particular window appears to be the source of the highly contested mystical extract. The church, with the antagonist at its leadership, designates these windows as a problem to the institution's orthodoxy and endeavors to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to move from strict reason and back to intuition, nevertheless, her belief that these sites must be preserved – that their significance and what they provide is mysteriously vital – strengthens. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a Blakean struggle between purity and knowledge is prepared.

Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution

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