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Things are unraveling in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a world that manifests, now more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along new and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is draining from authorities, and gathering in the offices of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the control of rioters. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and durable are weakening and giving way."

Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path

Precisely what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that propels the concluding book, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding excursion into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling realm he first introduced in the distant past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose geography corresponds to that of this world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the humans look and think and behave like us, but are joined by external spirits, souls in animal form; where the heavens are teeming with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, transports are taken and tea is drunk, and middle-aged professors carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a adult: still distinctly the sharp and persistent heroine of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her separation from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.

Merging Narratives

Pan's decision to leave in quest of that youthful part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he represents as her "creativity"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with marvel and peril on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in action, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the religious governing authority, and the author's brilliantly sinister representation of strict, administrative malice – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the office of leader of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is set on using his newfound authority to extend the institution's control. Another protagonist, who rescued infant the heroine to security along a swollen river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a sideline in intelligence work: he is dispatched to a key location to learn more about his aims. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and valuable botanical extract which appears somehow to be the source of a societal and financial disturbance rippling out from that area. The oil is regarded by some as a marketable commodity, by alternate groups as a research-based or mystical miracle, and by yet others – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a source of darkness; an affront that must be eradicated. The issue of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be eliminated or safeguarded is escalating in importance.

As in His Dark Materials, our protagonist's actions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inseparably entwined with the destiny of the realm

In the previous volume, these plots ran mostly in side by side. In this final book, they come together. As in His Dark Materials, her movements and her destiny are revealed to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the world. Her private quest to reunite with her companion and recover her imagination becomes the central battleground in a larger battle with an oppressive government which, as such authorities always have, is attempting to suppress freedom of thinking, creativity and expression: all the inner, rebellious ways in which humans can be independent.

Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts

The book begins with the finding of a series of strange fissures in the structure of the planet's air: gateways that appear to open into different dimensions. One such portal manifests to be the source of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The authority, with Delamare at its helm, classifies these portals as a threat to the church's doctrine and sets out to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to shift from strict reason and back to instinct, nevertheless, her belief that these sites must be protected – that their significance and what they provide is somehow essential – grows. "The substance, or the substance, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or no matter what we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a philosophical conflict between naivety and experience is established.

Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth

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