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Tings are falling apart in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that seems, in this volume especially, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or reassembling themselves along new and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from states, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the hands of crowds. "Something is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says merchant a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and strong are deteriorating and failing."

The Central Mystery and Her Quest

Exactly what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that propels The Rose Field, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, according to many, the author's concluding venture into the elaborately built, deeply captivating world he first introduced 30 years ago, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose terrain maps on to that of our world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by daemons, essences in creature form; where the air are filled with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, vehicles are ridden and drinks is drunk, and mature scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a child in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the first volume, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the sharp and determined heroine of the earlier books, but older, more sorrowful, warier, less certain. This restraint is intensified by her split from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

His choice to go off in pursuit of that youthful part of her which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a adventurous journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with marvel and danger on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in action, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister representation of austere, procedural evil – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. The antagonist – Lyra's relative, who faults her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the role of president of the authority's High Council, and is intent on using his newfound power to expand the institution's control. A key character, who carried baby the heroine to safety along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in espionage: he is sent to the city to discover more about the antagonist's plans. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and precious essential oil which appears in some way to be the source of a societal and financial disturbance spreading out from the region. The substance is viewed by some as a tradeable commodity, by alternate groups as a research-based or esoteric phenomenon, and by others still – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a origin of malevolence; an insult that must be eradicated. The issue of its origins, its significance, and if it should be removed or preserved is becoming urgent.

Similar to the first series, the heroine's decisions, and her future, are demonstrated to be deeply linked with the fate of the world

In its predecessor, these narratives ran mostly in tandem. In this final book, they come together. Like the first trilogy, her movements and her destiny are shown to be inseparably linked with the future of the universe. Her individual mission to rejoin with her daemon and recover her imagination becomes the key struggle in a larger battle with an oppressive system which, as such regimes typically do, is seeking to stifle autonomy of thought, originality and culture: all the inner, defiant ways in which humans can be free.

Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles

The story starts with the discovery of a collection of unusual openings in the structure of the planet's atmosphere: gateways that appear to give on to different dimensions. An example of a portal appears to be the point of the much debated mystical extract. The authority, with its leader at its head, classifies these portals as a threat to the institution's orthodoxy and aims to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from rigid rationalism and return to intuition, nevertheless, her conviction that these places must be defended – that their significance and what they provide is mysteriously crucial – increases. "The substance, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a philosophical tussle between innocence and knowledge is prepared.

Story Tempo and Character Development

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