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Things are collapsing in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar 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 governments, and accumulating in the chambers of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the hands of mobs. "Some force is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and durable are faltering and collapsing."

Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path

Precisely what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that animates The Rose Field, which picks up where the previous book left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's concluding venture into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting world he first unveiled three decades past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose landscape corresponds to that of this world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans look and think and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, essences in animal form; where the skies are teeming with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, transports are taken and beverages is sipped, and older academics carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still distinctly the prickly and determined protagonist of the earlier books, but aged, more sorrowful, warier, less sure. This restraint is heightened by her separation from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

The daemon's resolve to go off in quest of that innocent part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an quality which he represents as her "vision"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with marvel and risk on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in action, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the faith's controlling power, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of rigid, bureaucratic malice – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the office of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his recently acquired authority to expand the religion's control. Malcolm Polstead, who carried baby Lyra to security along a swollen river as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an university scholar with a sideline in intelligence work: he is sent to Geneva to find out more about Delamare's plans. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and costly botanical extract which manifests somehow to be the cause of a societal and financial disturbance emanating out from Central Asia. The substance is seen by various factions as a commercial commodity, by others as a scientific or mystical miracle, and by further factions – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of evil; an affront that must be destroyed. The dilemma of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is becoming urgent.

Similar to the original trilogy, the heroine's deeds, and her destiny, are shown to be inseparably entwined with the future of the universe

In the previous volume, these plots ran largely in parallel. In The Rose Field, they come together. Like the first trilogy, her actions and her fate are unveiled to be inseparably entwined with the future of the world. Her private mission to reunite with her soul and regain her imagination becomes the key conflict in a broader conflict with an authoritarian government which, as such regimes often attempt, is striving to suppress freedom of thought, creativity and expression: all the internal, defiant ways in which people can be liberated.

Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles

The book begins with the unveiling of a collection of curious openings in the fabric of the planet's atmosphere: gateways that appear to give on to different dimensions. A particular window appears to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its helm, labels these windows as a challenge to the institution's doctrine and sets out to destroy them. As Lyra begins to shift from strict rationalism and revert to feeling, nevertheless, her belief that these sites must be defended – that what they stand for and what they offer is somehow essential – grows. "The substance, or the extract, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or whatever we label it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a philosophical conflict between purity and experience is prepared.

Story Tempo and Personal Evolution

At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the