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Tings are collapsing in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a world that appears, in this volume especially, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is draining from states, and gathering in the offices of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the grasp of mobs. "Some force is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and strong are weakening and collapsing."

Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path

Just what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where its predecessor ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's last excursion into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting universe he first revealed in the distant past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography aligns with that of our world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, beings in beast form; where the skies are teeming with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but below, vehicles are taken and drinks is drunk, and mature scholars carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the sharp and determined protagonist of the earlier books, but more mature, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This limitation is intensified by her division from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

His choice to depart in pursuit of that youthful part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an quality which he represents as her "creativity"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a picaresque voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and danger on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in action, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the faith's ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling embodiment of rigid, procedural evil – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's family member, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the office of leader of the church's governing body, and is intent on using his fresh power to broaden the institution's control. Malcolm Polstead, who saved baby Lyra to security along a flooded Thames as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is dispatched to Geneva to find out more about the antagonist's aims. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and precious botanical extract which manifests mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and economic upheaval rippling out from that area. The substance is viewed by various factions as a marketable good, by others as a scientific or esoteric wonder, and by further factions – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a source of evil; an insult that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its origins, its significance, and if it should be removed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.

Like the first series, Lyra's actions, and her fate, are revealed to be inseparably entwined with the future of the universe

In its predecessor, these narratives ran broadly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they come together. Similar to the original series, Lyra's choices and her fate are shown to be inseparably woven with the fate of the realm. Her private mission to reunite with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the primary battleground in a broader conflict with an oppressive system which, as such regimes often attempt, is attempting to suppress independence of thought, creativity and expression: all the personal, resistant ways in which humans can be liberated.

Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles

The story begins with the finding of a collection of curious openings in the fabric of the planet's atmosphere: gateways that look to lead to alternate realities. A particular window appears to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The church, with Delamare at its head, labels these portals as a challenge to the church's beliefs and sets out to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from rigid logic and revert to feeling, however, her conviction that these locations must be preserved – that their meaning and their value is mysteriously essential – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a Blakean struggle between purity and experience is set.

Story Tempo and Character Development

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