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Things are unraveling in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's grand trilogies set in a universe that seems, in this volume especially, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or restructuring themselves along new and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from states, and accumulating in the chambers of theocrats, the coffers of conglomerates, the hands of mobs. "Something is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Things we thought were stable and solid are weakening and failing."

The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path

Just what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that propels this final volume, which resumes where its predecessor ended. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding excursion into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating world he first introduced three decades past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a world whose landscape aligns with that of our world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and reason and behave like us, but are paired by animal souls, beings in beast form; where the air are filled with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, vehicles are ridden and beverages is drunk, and older academics carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still clearly the sharp and determined main character of the prior volumes, but older, sadder, more careful, more doubtful. This circumscription is amplified by her division from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

His choice to go off in search of that childlike part of her which she appears to have shed (an trait which he represents as her "creativity"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a adventurous voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and danger on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the religious ruling body, and Pullman's masterfully eerie embodiment of austere, administrative evil – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's uncle, who faults her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of head of the church's High Council, and is intent on using his newfound influence to expand the church's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued baby Lyra 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 the city to discover more about the antagonist's intentions. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and costly botanical extract which appears in some way to be the cause of a social and financial disturbance emanating out from the region. The oil is regarded by some as a marketable commodity, by different parties as a research-based or spiritual wonder, and by others still – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of darkness; an affront that must be destroyed. The issue of where it comes from, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or protected is escalating in importance.

Like the first series, the heroine's decisions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be deeply linked with the future of the world

In the previous volume, these storylines ran broadly in parallel. In the conclusion, they come together. As in the original series, Lyra's actions and her path are revealed to be deeply entwined with the future of the world. Her private journey to rejoin with her daemon and recover her imagination becomes the primary battleground in a wider war with an oppressive system which, as these systems always have, is striving to quell freedom of thought, creativity and art: all the inner, rebellious ways in which individuals can be free.

Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts

The book begins with the unveiling of a series of strange openings in the fabric of the planet's air: windows that look to give on to different dimensions. An example of a window appears to be the origin of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The authority, with Delamare at its head, labels these portals as a problem to the religion's orthodoxy and aims to destroy them. As Lyra begins to move from inflexible reason and return to instinct, yet, her certainty that these places must be defended – that what they stand for and what they offer is in some way vital – strengthens. "The substance, or rose oil, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a philosophical struggle between naivety and maturity is prepared.

Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution

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