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Tings are unraveling in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of the author's masterful trilogies set in a universe that appears, now more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reassembling themselves along new and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from authorities, and pooling in the chambers of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the control of rioters. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an city cafe. "Things we thought were secure and solid are faltering and collapsing."

Key Puzzle and Her Quest

Precisely what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that drives The Rose Field, which resumes where its predecessor ended. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's concluding foray into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating world he first introduced 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose terrain corresponds to that of the real world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the individuals look and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, souls in creature form; where the skies are teeming with witches and gryphons, but underneath, vehicles are taken and drinks is consumed, and middle-aged scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the prequel, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still recognisably the sharp and persistent protagonist of the earlier books, but more mature, sadder, more careful, more doubtful. This restraint is intensified by her separation from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.

Merging Narratives

The daemon's resolve to go off in search of that youthful part of her which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a adventurous voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with wonder and peril on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the faith's controlling power, and Pullman's masterfully eerie incarnation of rigid, procedural malice – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's relative, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of president of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his newfound influence to broaden the religion's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who carried infant Lyra to safety along a flooded river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a sideline in espionage: he is sent to Geneva to learn more about Delamare's plans. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and precious rose oil which appears somehow to be the cause of a social and economic disturbance emanating out from Central Asia. The extract is viewed by some as a tradeable product, by different parties as a empirical or mystical phenomenon, and by yet others – the zealous "highland figures" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an challenge that must be destroyed. The question of where it comes from, its meaning, and whether it should be eliminated or protected is escalating in importance.

Like His Dark Materials, the heroine's decisions, and her destiny, are shown to be inseparably connected with the destiny of the world

In the previous volume, these narratives ran broadly in parallel. In the conclusion, they merge. As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's movements and her destiny are revealed to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the realm. Her individual quest to reunite with her daemon and rediscover her imagination becomes the central conflict in a larger war with an oppressive government which, as such authorities typically do, is attempting to quell independence of reason, creativity and culture: all the personal, resistant ways in which humans can be free.

Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts

The book opens with the discovery of a set of unusual cracks in the fabric of the Earth's atmosphere: portals that seem to lead to other worlds. A particular window seems to be the source of the highly contested botanical substance. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its helm, labels these portals as a threat to the church's doctrine and endeavors to destroy them. As the heroine begins to shift from inflexible rationalism and revert to instinct, nevertheless, her conviction that these sites must be protected – that their significance and their value is in some way crucial – grows. "The substance, or the extract, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a poetic tussle between naivety and knowledge is set.

Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution

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