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Things are unraveling in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that seems, in this volume especially, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along new and troubling lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of business empires, the grasp of mobs. "An element is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says merchant a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and strong are deteriorating and giving way."

Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path

Precisely what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, according to many, Pullman's last excursion into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting world he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a world whose terrain maps on to that of this world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the humans appear and think and behave like us, but are paired by animal souls, essences in creature form; where the heavens are filled with sorceresses and gryphons, but underneath, transports are taken and beverages is sipped, and middle-aged professors carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the prequel, the introductory book with which Pullman began the series, is now a mature individual: still clearly the prickly and determined main character of the earlier books, but aged, sadder, more careful, more doubtful. This circumscription is intensified by her division from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

His choice to depart in search of that childlike part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an trait which he represents as her "imagination"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with marvel and risk on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the religious controlling power, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of rigid, procedural wickedness – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. The antagonist – Lyra's family member, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the office of head of the Magisterium's governing body, and is set on using his fresh power to extend the religion's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued baby Lyra to safety along a overflowing Thames as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a secondary role in espionage: he is dispatched to Geneva to learn more about the antagonist's plans. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and costly essential oil which seems in some way to be the origin of a societal and financial crisis rippling out from Central Asia. The substance is regarded by various factions as a marketable commodity, by alternate groups as a research-based or spiritual phenomenon, and by further factions – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of malevolence; an affront that must be destroyed. The question of where it comes from, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or protected is escalating in importance.

Like His Dark Materials, our protagonist's decisions, and her fate, are revealed to be inseparably connected with the future of the world

In the previous volume, these narratives ran mostly in parallel. In this final book, they come together. Like the original series, her actions and her path are shown to be inseparably entwined with the future of the realm. Her personal quest to reconnect with her companion and recover her creativity becomes the central battleground in a wider war with an controlling government which, as these systems always have, is striving to stifle independence of thinking, creativity and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which humans can be independent.

Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles

The story starts with the discovery of a series of curious fissures in the structure of the planet's sky: portals that seem to open into different dimensions. One such portal manifests to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The authority, with its leader at its head, designates these windows as a threat to the church's orthodoxy and aims to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to move from rigid reason and revert to intuition, nevertheless, her conviction that these sites must be defended – that their significance and what they offer is mysteriously essential – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a Blakean struggle between purity and maturity is established.

Plot Rhythm and Character Development

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