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Things are falling apart in the concluding book of Pullman's latest trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a realm that manifests, now more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar 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". Authority is flowing away from states, and gathering in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of business empires, the grasp of rioters. "Something is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and solid are faltering and failing."

Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey

Precisely what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that animates the concluding book, which continues where the previous book left off. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding excursion into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating realm he first unveiled three decades past, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose geography aligns with that of our world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and act like us, but are paired by daemons, essences in animal form; where the air are teeming with witches and gryphons, but below, vehicles are caught and tea is sipped, and mature scholars carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still clearly the sharp and persistent main character of the prior volumes, but more mature, melancholic, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is amplified by her split from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

His choice to leave in search of that childlike part of her which she may have forgotten (an quality which he represents as her "imagination"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which followed Lyra undertake a adventurous voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with marvel and risk on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in play, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister embodiment of austere, bureaucratic malice – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's uncle, who blames her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of head of the church's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his recently acquired power to expand the church's rule. A key character, who carried infant the heroine to safety along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is sent to the city to find out more about Delamare's aims. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and valuable botanical extract which seems mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and economic upheaval rippling out from Central Asia. The extract is viewed by certain groups as a tradeable commodity, by alternate groups as a scientific or spiritual phenomenon, and by further factions – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a source of malevolence; an challenge that must be obliterated. The issue of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be destroyed or preserved is escalating in importance.

Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions, and her future, are revealed to be inseparably entwined with the destiny of the realm

In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they come together. Like the first trilogy, Lyra's movements and her destiny are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the world. Her personal journey to rejoin with her companion and regain her creativity becomes the primary battleground in a larger conflict with an authoritarian regime which, as such authorities often attempt, is attempting to suppress autonomy of thought, originality and art: all the inner, rebellious ways in which people can be independent.

Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles

The book starts with the finding of a set of unusual openings in the fabric of the Earth's atmosphere: gateways that seem to lead to alternate realities. An example of a opening appears to be the point of the highly contested mystical extract. The church, with the antagonist at its helm, classifies these openings as a threat to the church's doctrine and sets out to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from inflexible reason and back to intuition, yet, her belief that these sites must be defended – that what they stand for and what they provide is mysteriously vital – strengthens. "Dust, or the substance, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or whatever we label it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a Blakean conflict between naivety and knowledge is set.

Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution

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