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Things are falling apart in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a world that manifests, now more than ever, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from governments, and accumulating in the offices of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the control of rioters. "Something is at work, very quietly, gradually", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his seat in an city cafe. "Things we thought were firm and durable are deteriorating and giving way."

Core Enigma and Her Quest

Precisely what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that drives The Rose Field, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, by all accounts, the author's concluding excursion into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling world he first introduced in the distant past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose terrain maps on to that of our world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the people look and think and act like us, but are joined by daemons, essences in creature form; where the heavens are filled with witches and gryphons, but below, transports are caught and tea is consumed, and older academics carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a child in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the sharp and tenacious protagonist of the earlier books, but more mature, more sorrowful, warier, less sure. This limitation is intensified by her split from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

His choice to go off in search of that innocent part of her which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a adventurous journey across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with amazement and risk on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling embodiment of strict, procedural wickedness – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. The antagonist – Lyra's uncle, who blames her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the role of head of the church's governing body, and is determined on using his newfound influence to broaden the church's control. Another protagonist, who carried infant Lyra to safety along a overflowing Thames as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an academic with a secondary role in espionage: he is sent to the city to learn more about his plans. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and precious rose oil which manifests in some way to be the origin of a societal and economic disturbance emanating out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by various factions as a marketable good, by alternate groups as a empirical or mystical miracle, and by further factions – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a source of darkness; an affront that must be destroyed. The dilemma of where it comes from, its meaning, and if it should be destroyed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.

Similar to the first series, Lyra's actions, and her destiny, are revealed to be inextricably linked with the fate of the world

In the previous volume, these storylines ran broadly in side by side. In the conclusion, they merge. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's choices and her fate are shown to be inextricably linked with the fate of the realm. Her personal mission to reunite with her soul and regain her creativity becomes the primary conflict in a wider conflict with an authoritarian regime which, as such regimes always have, is attempting to suppress freedom of thinking, innovation and culture: all the internal, resistant ways in which humans can be liberated.

Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles

The story begins with the unveiling of a set of strange openings in the fabric of the Earth's atmosphere: windows that look to lead to different dimensions. A particular opening seems to be the origin of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The church, with Delamare at its helm, labels these portals as a challenge to the church's orthodoxy and sets out to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from strict logic and back to intuition, nevertheless, her certainty that these sites must be defended – that their significance and what they provide is somehow essential – grows. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a poetic struggle between innocence and knowledge is prepared.

Story Tempo and Character Development

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