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Tings are unraveling in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that appears, in this volume especially, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reassembling themselves along new and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is draining from states, and accumulating in the offices of religious leaders, the coffers of conglomerates, the grasp of mobs. "Something is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an city cafe. "Things we thought were firm and durable are weakening and giving way."

Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey

Just what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that propels The Rose Field, which continues where the previous book left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final excursion into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting world he first revealed three decades past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography corresponds to that of the real world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the people look and think and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, beings in creature form; where the skies are teeming with witches and gryphons, but beneath those skies, transports are taken and drinks is drunk, and mature professors carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the spiky and persistent protagonist of the earlier books, but aged, melancholic, more careful, less sure. This restraint is intensified by her division from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

His choice to depart in quest of that innocent part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an quality which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which chronicled Lyra undertake a picaresque trek across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with marvel and danger on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the faith's controlling power, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of strict, bureaucratic wickedness – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. The antagonist – Lyra's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the role of leader of the authority's governing body, and is set on using his fresh authority to extend the religion's control. Malcolm Polstead, who saved baby Lyra to security along a overflowing Thames as an young boy in the first book, is now an academic with a additional duty in espionage: he is assigned to the city to learn more about Delamare's intentions. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and costly essential oil which manifests mysteriously to be the source of a societal and financial upheaval rippling out from Central Asia. The oil is viewed by some as a tradeable good, by others as a empirical or spiritual miracle, and by others still – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a origin of darkness; an challenge that must be obliterated. The question of where it comes from, its meaning, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.

As in the original trilogy, Lyra's deeds, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the universe

In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they come together. Similar to His Dark Materials, her actions and her path are shown to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the universe. Her individual quest to reconnect with her soul and regain her vision becomes the central struggle in a broader war with an oppressive government which, as such authorities often attempt, is striving to stifle freedom of thinking, innovation and expression: all the personal, resistant ways in which people can be free.

Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles

The book opens with the discovery of a series of strange fissures in the structure of the planet's air: gateways that appear to lead to other worlds. A particular opening manifests to be the origin of the much debated botanical substance. The church, with Delamare at its head, classifies these windows as a threat to the institution's beliefs and aims to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from inflexible logic and revert to feeling, yet, her conviction that these places must be preserved – that their significance and what they offer is in some way essential – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a poetic tussle between innocence and experience is prepared.

Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth

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