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Tings are collapsing in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that manifests, in this volume especially, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from governments, and accumulating in the halls of religious leaders, the coffers of conglomerates, the hands of mobs. "Some force is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and durable are weakening and giving way."

Key Puzzle and Her Quest

Precisely what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that drives The Rose Field, which picks up where its predecessor left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's final foray into the elaborately built, deeply captivating realm he first unveiled in the distant past, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose terrain corresponds to that of our world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, essences in animal form; where the air are populated with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, buses are ridden and tea is consumed, and mature scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a child in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still clearly the prickly and determined protagonist of the earlier books, but more mature, sadder, warier, less sure. This limitation is intensified by her separation from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

The daemon's resolve to go off in pursuit of that childlike part of her which she appears to have shed (an quality which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which followed Lyra undertake a adventurous voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with marvel and risk on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in action, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the religious ruling body, and Pullman's masterfully eerie embodiment of austere, administrative evil – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's family member, who blames her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the office of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his newfound influence to broaden the church's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued baby Lyra to security along a overflowing Thames as an child in the first book, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in spycraft: he is dispatched to a key location to discover more about Delamare's aims. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which seems somehow to be the origin of a social and economic disturbance emanating out from the region. The substance is seen by various factions as a commercial commodity, by different parties as a research-based or esoteric miracle, and by yet others – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a source of malevolence; an affront that must be destroyed. The question of its origins, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is becoming urgent.

Like the first series, our protagonist's deeds, and her destiny, are shown to be inextricably entwined with the future of the world

In the previous volume, these plots ran largely in tandem. In the conclusion, they merge. As in the first trilogy, her movements and her path are revealed to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the realm. Her individual quest to reunite with her companion and rediscover her imagination becomes the key battleground in a larger conflict with an authoritarian regime which, as such authorities often attempt, is striving to suppress independence of thinking, originality and culture: all the inner, rebellious ways in which people can be free.

Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles

The story opens with the finding of a series of unusual openings in the structure of the world's sky: gateways that look to lead to alternate realities. A particular opening seems to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its helm, classifies these openings as a problem to the institution's beliefs and sets out to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to move from strict logic and back to intuition, however, her belief that these sites must be defended – that their significance and what they provide is in some way vital – strengthens. "The substance, or rose oil, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we name it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a poetic conflict between naivety and experience is established.

Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth

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