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Tings are falling apart in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that manifests, in this volume especially, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or restructuring themselves along new and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is draining from governments, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the control of mobs. "Something is at work, stealthily, gradually", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and strong are deteriorating and giving way."

Core Enigma and Her Quest

Exactly what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that animates this final volume, which picks up where its predecessor left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's final foray into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling world he first revealed 30 years ago, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose landscape aligns with that of our world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the people appear and reason and behave like us, but are paired by daemons, souls in creature form; where the air are populated with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but below, transports are caught and tea is drunk, and middle-aged scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the sharp and tenacious main character of the previous installments, but older, more sorrowful, more cautious, less certain. This limitation is heightened by her separation from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

Pan's decision to go off in pursuit of that childlike part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an quality which he represents as her "vision"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with wonder and risk on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in action, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the religious ruling body, and the author's deliciously chilling incarnation of rigid, bureaucratic wickedness – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – Lyra's uncle, who blames her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of leader of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his newfound power to extend the church's control. A key character, who saved young the heroine to safety along a swollen river as an young boy in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in intelligence work: he is sent to the city to find out more about the antagonist's intentions. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and valuable essential oil which manifests mysteriously to be the origin of a societal and financial disturbance rippling out from the region. The substance is regarded by various factions as a tradeable commodity, by others as a scientific or spiritual miracle, and by yet others – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a source of darkness; an challenge that must be destroyed. The issue of where it comes from, what it stands for, and if it should be destroyed or preserved is escalating in importance.

Similar to the first series, our protagonist's decisions, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inseparably connected with the destiny of the realm

In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran largely in tandem. In The Rose Field, they merge. Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's movements and her destiny are shown to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the universe. Her individual journey to rejoin with her soul and recover her creativity becomes the key conflict in a larger conflict with an authoritarian system which, as these systems often attempt, is striving to quell autonomy of thinking, creativity and culture: all the personal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be free.

Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts

The story begins with the discovery of a collection of strange openings in the structure of the world's atmosphere: gateways that look to open into other worlds. One such opening seems to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The church, with its leader at its leadership, labels these windows as a problem to the institution's beliefs and endeavors to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to shift from strict reason and return to intuition, nevertheless, her conviction that these places must be defended – that what they stand for and what they provide is mysteriously crucial – increases. "The substance, or the substance, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or whatever we name it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a poetic tussle between innocence and maturity is prepared.

Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth

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