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Things are falling apart in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a universe that manifests, here more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from governments, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the vaults of conglomerates, the control of rioters. "Some force is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and strong are faltering and giving way."

The Central Mystery 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 resumes where the previous book left off. This is, by all accounts, the author's last venture into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating universe he first revealed three decades past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose terrain aligns with that of this world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the people appear and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, essences in animal form; where the skies are teeming with witches and legendary creatures, but underneath, buses are taken and tea is drunk, and middle-aged professors carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a child in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the first volume, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still clearly the sharp and persistent protagonist of the previous installments, but aged, melancholic, more cautious, less sure. This restraint is intensified by her separation from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

The daemon's resolve to leave in search of that youthful part of her which she seems to have lost (an quality which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which followed Lyra undertake a adventurous voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with marvel and risk on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling embodiment of strict, procedural wickedness – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the position of leader of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is set on using his newfound influence to extend the institution's rule. Another protagonist, who carried young Lyra to refuge along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in intelligence work: he is sent to Geneva to find out more about his intentions. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and valuable botanical extract which manifests mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and financial upheaval emanating out from the region. The substance is viewed by some as a marketable commodity, by different parties as a empirical or spiritual wonder, and by yet others – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of evil; an insult that must be destroyed. The question of its origins, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or preserved is becoming urgent.

As in the original trilogy, the heroine's deeds, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the realm

In the previous volume, these narratives ran mostly in tandem. In the conclusion, they come together. Like the first trilogy, Lyra's actions and her fate are shown to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the universe. Her individual mission to rejoin with her companion and rediscover her imagination becomes the key struggle in a broader conflict with an controlling system which, as such authorities typically do, is striving to suppress freedom of reason, creativity and culture: all the personal, resistant ways in which people can be liberated.

Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles

The novel opens with the unveiling of a series of unusual openings in the fabric of the planet's air: windows that seem to lead to other worlds. One such portal manifests to be the origin of the highly contested rose oil. The church, with its leader at its head, classifies these windows as a challenge to the church's beliefs and aims to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from strict rationalism and back to feeling, nevertheless, her conviction that these locations must be protected – that what they stand for and their value is in some way crucial – strengthens. "The substance, or the substance, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a philosophical struggle between naivety and experience is established.

Narrative Pacing and Character Development

At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the