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Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that appears, here more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from authorities, and pooling in the halls of religious leaders, the vaults of business empires, the control of mobs. "An element is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and solid are weakening and giving way."

Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey

Just what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that drives this final volume, which continues where the previous book concluded. This is, according to many, Pullman's final venture into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling world he first revealed three decades past, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose terrain corresponds to that of our world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans look and think and behave like us, but are joined by external spirits, beings in animal form; where the heavens are teeming with witches and gryphons, but underneath, vehicles are ridden and drinks is consumed, and older scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the first volume, the introductory book with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still clearly the spiky and determined protagonist of the earlier books, but more mature, more sorrowful, more careful, less sure. This circumscription is intensified by her separation from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

Pan's decision to depart in quest of that youthful part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he represents as her "creativity"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a wandering journey across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with wonder and danger on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in play, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the faith's governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of strict, procedural evil – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of president of the church's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his recently acquired influence to broaden the institution's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued infant Lyra to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a sideline in espionage: he is assigned to a key location to learn more about the antagonist's intentions. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and costly botanical extract which appears somehow to be the origin of a societal and economic upheaval emanating out from Central Asia. The extract is viewed by some as a marketable commodity, by different parties as a research-based or spiritual miracle, and by yet others – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of malevolence; an insult that must be obliterated. The question of where it comes from, its meaning, and if it should be destroyed or preserved is coming rapidly to the fore.

Like the first series, the heroine's decisions, and her fate, are shown to be inextricably linked with the future of the realm

In the previous volume, these narratives ran broadly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they come together. As in the original series, the protagonist's movements and her destiny are revealed to be deeply linked with the destiny of the realm. Her personal journey to reunite with her soul and regain her creativity becomes the key conflict in a larger war with an oppressive regime which, as these systems often attempt, is striving to suppress freedom of reason, creativity and art: all the inner, rebellious ways in which people can be independent.

Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles

The book opens with the discovery of a set of unusual fissures in the makeup of the world's air: windows that seem to lead to other worlds. One such portal appears to be the source of the much debated rose oil. The church, with the antagonist at its leadership, classifies these windows as a threat to the church's beliefs and sets out to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to move from rigid logic and return to feeling, yet, her belief that these places must be defended – that what they stand for and what they offer is somehow crucial – strengthens. "Dust, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a Blakean conflict between innocence and maturity is prepared.

Plot Rhythm and Character Development

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