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Things are collapsing in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a world that appears, now more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from states, and pooling in the offices of theocrats, the treasuries of business empires, the hands of crowds. "Some force is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an city cafe. "Things we thought were secure and durable are weakening and giving way."

Key Puzzle and Her Quest

Precisely what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that propels The Rose Field, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, according to many, the author's last foray into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling realm he first introduced in the distant past, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose geography corresponds to that of this world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the humans appear and think and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, essences in animal form; where the air are populated with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but below, transports are ridden and beverages is sipped, and older scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still clearly the prickly and determined heroine of the prior volumes, but more mature, melancholic, warier, more doubtful. This restraint is intensified by her separation from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

The daemon's resolve to leave in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she appears to have shed (an quality which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which chronicled Lyra undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with amazement and peril on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the faith's governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling embodiment of strict, administrative malice – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. The antagonist – our protagonist's family member, who faults her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of leader of the Magisterium's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound influence to extend the church's control. A key character, who saved baby Lyra to security along a flooded Thames as an child in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in espionage: he is sent to Geneva to find out more about his aims. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and precious essential oil which manifests mysteriously to be the source of a societal and financial upheaval rippling out from that area. The extract is viewed by various factions as a commercial good, by others as a research-based or esoteric phenomenon, and by yet others – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a source of darkness; an challenge that must be obliterated. The issue of its source, what it stands for, and whether it should be eliminated or safeguarded is becoming urgent.

As in His Dark Materials, the heroine's deeds, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be deeply entwined with the future of the world

In the previous volume, these storylines ran largely in parallel. In this final book, they merge. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's movements and her path are unveiled to be deeply woven with the destiny of the world. Her personal journey to reconnect with her daemon and rediscover her imagination becomes the central battleground in a wider conflict with an oppressive government which, as such authorities often attempt, is seeking to quell freedom of reason, innovation and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which humans can be liberated.

Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles

The novel opens with the finding of a series of curious fissures in the structure of the world's sky: windows that seem to open into other worlds. One such portal seems to be the origin of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its head, classifies these openings as a threat to the religion's orthodoxy and aims to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to shift from rigid rationalism and return to intuition, nevertheless, her belief that these places must be defended – that what they stand for and what they provide is mysteriously vital – strengthens. "The substance, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a philosophical conflict between purity and maturity is established.

Story Tempo and Personal Evolution

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