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Things are falling apart in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a universe that seems, here more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or reorganizing themselves along new and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from states, and pooling in the halls of theocrats, the vaults of business empires, the grasp of rioters. "An element is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and solid are faltering and failing."

The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey

Exactly what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that propels The Rose Field, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's concluding foray into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating universe he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose geography corresponds to that of our world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, essences in animal form; where the skies are populated with witches and legendary creatures, but underneath, vehicles are ridden and beverages is consumed, and middle-aged professors carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the prequel, the prequel with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the prickly and tenacious protagonist of the previous installments, but aged, sadder, more careful, less certain. This restraint is heightened by her division from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

His choice to go off in pursuit of that childlike part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an trait which he represents as her "imagination"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with marvel and peril on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in action, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister incarnation of rigid, procedural malice – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's family member, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the office of president of the Magisterium's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound authority to expand the church's rule. A key character, who saved infant Lyra to safety along a overflowing Thames as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is dispatched to a key location to find out more about Delamare's aims. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and costly rose oil which manifests mysteriously to be the origin of a social and financial disturbance emanating out from the region. The oil is viewed by certain groups as a commercial good, by others as a empirical or spiritual wonder, and by yet others – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a origin of darkness; an challenge that must be destroyed. The issue of its source, its meaning, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.

As in the original trilogy, the heroine's deeds, and her destiny, are shown to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the realm

In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they merge. Like the original series, the protagonist's choices and her path are revealed to be deeply woven with the destiny of the realm. Her private mission to reconnect with her companion and rediscover her imagination becomes the central conflict in a wider battle with an authoritarian government which, as such authorities often attempt, is seeking to suppress independence of reason, originality and culture: all the internal, resistant ways in which individuals can be free.

Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles

The book starts with the finding of a set of strange openings in the makeup of the planet's sky: windows that appear to give on to different dimensions. An example of a opening manifests to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The Magisterium, with its leader at its leadership, designates these portals as a threat to the church's orthodoxy and sets out to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to shift from inflexible logic and revert to intuition, yet, her belief that these locations must be defended – that their meaning and what they provide is in some way crucial – increases. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or whatever we name it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a poetic struggle between purity and knowledge is established.

Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth

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