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Things are unraveling in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that appears, here more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from governments, and pooling in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of business empires, the control of mobs. "An element is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and solid are weakening and collapsing."

The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path

Just what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the inquiry that propels The Rose Field, which continues where its predecessor left off. This is, by all accounts, the author's final excursion into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling realm he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose terrain aligns with that of our world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and think and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, essences in creature form; where the air are filled with witches and gryphons, but below, vehicles are ridden and drinks is drunk, and mature scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the prequel, the introductory book with which Pullman began the series, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the sharp and persistent heroine of the prior volumes, but aged, more sorrowful, more cautious, more doubtful. This circumscription is heightened by her division from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

The daemon's resolve to leave in pursuit of that childlike part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an quality which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, meeting with wonder and danger on the way. But from the start, 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 malice – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's family member, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the position of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is set on using his newfound power to extend the church's rule. Another protagonist, who rescued baby the heroine to safety along a overflowing Thames as an young boy in the first book, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in spycraft: he is sent to the city to learn more about the antagonist's intentions. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which manifests somehow to be the cause of a social and financial upheaval rippling out from that area. The oil is seen by some as a tradeable product, by alternate groups as a scientific or spiritual phenomenon, and by further factions – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an affront that must be destroyed. The question of its source, its meaning, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.

Similar to the first series, Lyra's deeds, and her future, are revealed to be deeply linked with the fate of the world

In the previous volume, these storylines ran largely in side by side. In this final book, they merge. Like the first trilogy, her choices and her destiny are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the world. Her individual mission to reconnect with her companion and recover her creativity becomes the central struggle in a broader conflict with an authoritarian system which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to quell freedom of thought, originality and expression: all the internal, defiant ways in which individuals can be liberated.

Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles

The novel opens with the finding of a set of unusual fissures in the structure of the Earth's atmosphere: gateways that look to give on to other worlds. A particular window manifests to be the point of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The authority, with its leader at its head, designates these portals as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and sets out to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to shift from inflexible reason and back to instinct, however, her belief that these locations must be protected – that what they stand for and their value is somehow crucial – grows. "Dust, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a Blakean conflict between innocence and knowledge is prepared.

Plot Rhythm and Character Development

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