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Things are collapsing in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that seems, here more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reassembling themselves along novel and disturbing 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 shifting from governments, and accumulating in the offices of theocrats, the vaults of business empires, the grasp of crowds. "Something is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and solid are faltering and giving way."

Core Enigma and Her Quest

Precisely what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that propels the concluding book, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, according to many, the author's final venture into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling world he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose geography corresponds to that of the real world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, essences in animal form; where the heavens are populated with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, transports are caught and beverages is drunk, and older professors carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the prequel, the introductory book with which Pullman began the series, is now a young woman: still clearly the prickly and persistent main character of the previous installments, but aged, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is intensified by her separation from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

The daemon's resolve to leave in search of that innocent part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an quality which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a adventurous journey across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and risk on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's masterfully eerie incarnation of rigid, procedural wickedness – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. The antagonist – the heroine's uncle, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of leader of the authority's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound influence to extend the church's dominium. Another protagonist, who rescued young the heroine to security along a swollen Thames as an young boy in the prequel, is now an academic with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to the city to find out more about Delamare's intentions. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which appears mysteriously to be the cause of a social and financial upheaval spreading out from the region. The substance is regarded by some as a marketable product, by different parties as a scientific or esoteric wonder, and by others still – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an challenge that must be obliterated. The question of its source, its meaning, and whether it should be destroyed or preserved is escalating in importance.

Like the first series, the heroine's actions, and her future, are revealed to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the universe

In the previous volume, these narratives ran largely in tandem. In The Rose Field, they come together. Similar to His Dark Materials, her actions and her fate are shown to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the universe. Her individual mission to rejoin with her soul and rediscover her creativity becomes the primary conflict in a larger battle with an authoritarian system which, as such authorities often attempt, is attempting to suppress autonomy of thought, originality and culture: all the inner, rebellious ways in which people can be liberated.

Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts

The story begins with the discovery of a collection of curious fissures in the structure of the Earth's sky: windows that appear to open into alternate realities. A particular window manifests to be the origin of the much debated botanical substance. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its helm, classifies these windows as a problem to the church's orthodoxy and endeavors to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from inflexible rationalism and back to intuition, however, her certainty that these sites must be protected – that their meaning and what they offer is in some way essential – increases. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a poetic conflict between innocence and experience is set.

Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth

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