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Tings are collapsing in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that appears, now more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from governments, and accumulating in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the grasp of mobs. "Some force is at work, silently, gradually", says merchant a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his post in an city cafe. "Things we thought were firm and solid are weakening and giving way."

Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey

Just what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that animates the concluding book, which picks up where the previous book concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's last foray into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting realm he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose terrain maps on to that of the real world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the humans look and reason and behave like us, but are joined by external spirits, beings in creature form; where the air are populated with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but below, transports are caught and drinks is sipped, and mature academics carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still distinctly the spiky and determined protagonist of the earlier books, but more mature, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her separation from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

Pan's decision to go off in pursuit of that childlike part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he represents as her "vision"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which saw the protagonist undertake a adventurous voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with wonder and danger on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the faith's governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling embodiment of strict, procedural malice – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's family member, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of head of the Magisterium's governing body, and is intent on using his fresh influence to broaden the church's control. A key character, who rescued baby the heroine to safety along a swollen Thames as an child in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in intelligence work: he is assigned to the city to learn more about Delamare's plans. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and precious botanical extract which manifests somehow to be the source of a social and financial disturbance rippling out from the region. The extract is seen by some as a commercial commodity, by different parties as a research-based or spiritual miracle, and by others still – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a source of malevolence; an insult that must be destroyed. The issue of where it comes from, its significance, and if it should be eliminated or safeguarded is escalating in importance.

Like the first series, the heroine's actions, and her destiny, are revealed to be inextricably connected with the fate of the world

In its predecessor, these storylines ran broadly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they come together. As in the original series, Lyra's movements and her path are unveiled to be deeply woven with the fate of the realm. Her personal quest to reunite with her daemon and rediscover her imagination becomes the key conflict in a wider war with an controlling system which, as these systems typically do, is striving to suppress independence of thought, creativity and art: all the personal, defiant ways in which individuals can be free.

Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts

The book starts with the finding of a series of curious fissures in the fabric of the Earth's air: windows that look to give on to different dimensions. One such window manifests to be the point of the highly contested rose oil. The authority, with Delamare at its helm, designates these portals as a threat to the religion's beliefs and sets out to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from rigid reason and return to feeling, however, her belief that these locations must be protected – that their meaning and their value is somehow crucial – increases. "Dust, or the substance, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a philosophical struggle between naivety and maturity is prepared.

Story Tempo and Character Development

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