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Tings are falling apart in the final volume of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of the author's grand trilogies set in a world that appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from governments, and pooling in the offices of theocrats, the vaults of conglomerates, the control of crowds. "An element is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his seat in an city cafe. "Things we thought were firm and durable are faltering and failing."

Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey

Exactly what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that propels the concluding book, which resumes where its predecessor left off. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding excursion into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating world he first introduced in the distant past, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose terrain maps on to that of the real world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and think and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, souls in creature form; where the skies are teeming with enchantresses and gryphons, but below, transports are ridden and drinks is sipped, 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 the first volume, the origin story with which Pullman began the series, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the spiky and determined heroine of the previous installments, but more mature, more sorrowful, more careful, more doubtful. This limitation is heightened by her division from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

Pan's decision to leave in search of that innocent part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an quality which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which followed Lyra undertake a wandering voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with marvel and risk on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the faith's ruling body, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister representation of rigid, administrative evil – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's uncle, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the position of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his newfound power to extend the church's control. Malcolm Polstead, who carried baby the heroine to safety along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in spycraft: he is dispatched to a key location to discover more about Delamare's plans. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and precious essential oil which manifests somehow to be the cause of a social and economic disturbance emanating out from the region. The extract is seen by various factions as a commercial commodity, by different parties as a empirical or mystical miracle, and by yet others – the extremist "highland figures" – as a origin of malevolence; an insult that must be eradicated. The question of its source, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or preserved is escalating in importance.

Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's decisions, and her destiny, are shown to be inextricably linked with the future of the realm

In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran largely in side by side. In the conclusion, they come together. Similar to the first trilogy, the protagonist's movements and her fate are revealed to be deeply woven with the fate of the realm. Her private quest to reconnect with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the primary battleground in a wider conflict with an authoritarian system which, as such regimes often attempt, is seeking to suppress autonomy of reason, innovation and art: all the personal, rebellious ways in which humans can be independent.

Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles

The story starts with the discovery of a collection of curious fissures in the structure of the world's air: gateways that look to give on to other worlds. One such opening manifests to be the origin of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its helm, classifies these portals as a challenge to the church's beliefs and aims to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to shift from strict reason and revert to feeling, nevertheless, her belief that these locations must be preserved – that their significance and what they provide is mysteriously essential – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a philosophical struggle between innocence and knowledge is prepared.

Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth

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