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Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that manifests, now more than ever, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along new and troubling lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from states, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the vaults of conglomerates, the grasp of mobs. "Something is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and strong are faltering and giving way."

Key Puzzle and Her Quest

Exactly what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the inquiry that animates The Rose Field, which continues where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's final venture into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting realm he first introduced in the distant past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a world whose terrain corresponds to that of this world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals look and think and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, beings in beast form; where the heavens are teeming with sorceresses and gryphons, but beneath those skies, transports are taken and beverages is consumed, and mature scholars carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the first volume, the origin story with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a adult: still clearly the prickly and persistent protagonist of the earlier books, but aged, melancholic, warier, less sure. This restraint is amplified by her separation from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

Pan's decision to depart in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he represents as her "creativity"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a adventurous journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and danger on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the religious governing authority, and Pullman's masterfully eerie representation of rigid, procedural wickedness – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's family member, who blames her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the role of head of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his newfound influence to extend the church's control. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued young Lyra to safety along a flooded Thames as an young boy in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is assigned to the city to discover more about Delamare's aims. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and valuable essential oil which appears in some way to be the source of a societal and financial disturbance rippling out from the region. The extract is viewed by some as a marketable good, by others as a research-based or spiritual miracle, and by further factions – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a source of darkness; an insult that must be destroyed. The dilemma of its origins, its meaning, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.

Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's deeds, and her fate, are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the realm

In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran broadly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they converge. As in His Dark Materials, the protagonist's actions and her destiny are shown to be inextricably linked with the future of the world. Her personal mission to reunite with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the primary battleground in a broader conflict with an authoritarian government which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to quell independence of thought, originality and expression: all the personal, resistant ways in which humans can be free.

Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles

The story opens with the finding of a series of strange fissures in the structure of the Earth's air: gateways that look to give on to alternate realities. An example of a portal appears to be the source of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The authority, with the antagonist at its helm, designates these openings as a problem to the church's beliefs and endeavors to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to move from rigid logic and revert to intuition, yet, her conviction that these sites must be protected – that their significance and what they provide is somehow vital – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a Blakean tussle between naivety and knowledge is set.

Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth

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