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Things are unraveling in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that manifests, here more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Organizations are failing, or reorganizing themselves along new and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from states, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the hands of rioters. "Some force is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says trader a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and durable are faltering and giving way."

Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey

Precisely what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that drives The Rose Field, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding venture into the elaborately built, deeply captivating world he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a world whose geography maps on to that of this world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans look and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by daemons, beings in creature form; where the skies are filled with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but below, transports are caught and drinks is consumed, and middle-aged academics carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the first volume, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the sharp and determined heroine of the prior volumes, but older, melancholic, more careful, less sure. This limitation is heightened by her separation from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

His choice to leave in quest of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an quality which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a adventurous journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and peril on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in action, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the faith's ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister embodiment of austere, bureaucratic malice – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. The antagonist – the heroine's relative, who blames her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of president of the church's governing body, and is set on using his fresh power to extend the church's rule. Another protagonist, who rescued young the heroine to security along a swollen river as an young boy in the first book, is now an academic with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is assigned to Geneva to learn more about his aims. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and valuable rose oil which manifests somehow to be the origin of a societal and financial crisis rippling out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by some as a marketable commodity, by others as a empirical or spiritual wonder, and by others still – the zealous "highland figures" – as a origin of malevolence; an affront that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is becoming urgent.

Like the original trilogy, the heroine's deeds, and her fate, are revealed to be deeply entwined with the future of the universe

In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran largely in parallel. In the conclusion, they merge. As in the original series, the protagonist's actions and her destiny are revealed to be deeply linked with the future of the realm. Her private journey to reconnect with her companion and recover her vision becomes the key conflict in a larger war with an authoritarian system which, as such authorities always have, is striving to suppress independence of thought, originality and expression: all the internal, resistant ways in which humans can be free.

Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts

The story begins with the finding of a series of curious openings in the makeup of the planet's air: gateways that appear to open into alternate realities. An example of a portal manifests to be the origin of the much debated mystical extract. The church, with Delamare at its head, designates these openings as a threat to the religion's beliefs and sets out to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to shift from strict reason and back to instinct, nevertheless, her belief that these places must be protected – that their meaning and their value is in some way vital – increases. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a philosophical struggle between purity and experience is established.

Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution

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