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Things are collapsing in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a world that manifests, here more than ever, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along new and troubling lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the vaults of business empires, the control of rioters. "Something is at work, silently, very subtly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and durable are deteriorating and collapsing."

The Central Mystery and Her Quest

Just what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that drives this final volume, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, reportedly, the author's final venture into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting universe he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography aligns with that of our world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, souls in creature form; where the air are filled with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, vehicles are taken and beverages is sipped, and older scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still clearly the sharp and determined protagonist of the previous installments, but older, more sorrowful, more careful, less certain. This limitation is intensified by her division from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

His choice to depart in quest of that childlike part of her which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he represents as her "creativity"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and danger on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in play, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's masterfully eerie embodiment of strict, administrative wickedness – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. The antagonist – our protagonist's family member, who blames her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the role of head of the authority's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his recently acquired authority to broaden the church's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who saved young the heroine to refuge along a flooded river as an child in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is assigned to a key location to discover more about the antagonist's intentions. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and precious rose oil which seems in some way to be the source of a social and economic crisis rippling out from that area. The substance is seen by certain groups as a commercial product, by alternate groups as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by others still – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a source of evil; an challenge that must be eradicated. The question of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be removed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.

Similar to His Dark Materials, our protagonist's deeds, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inextricably connected with the destiny of the world

In its predecessor, these plots ran mostly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they converge. Like the first trilogy, Lyra's movements and her path are shown to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the universe. Her personal journey to reconnect with her soul and regain her creativity becomes the central struggle in a wider battle with an controlling government which, as such regimes typically do, is attempting to quell freedom of thinking, innovation and expression: all the inner, resistant ways in which people can be independent.

Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts

The story begins with the discovery of a series of unusual fissures in the makeup of the world's sky: gateways that appear to give on to different dimensions. One such portal manifests to be the point of the much debated botanical substance. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its leadership, classifies these openings as a challenge to the church's doctrine and sets out to destroy them. As Lyra begins to turn away from rigid rationalism and return to instinct, yet, her conviction that these locations must be preserved – that their significance and what they offer is in some way crucial – grows. "Dust, or the extract, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a poetic conflict between innocence and maturity is prepared.

Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth

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