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Tings are falling apart in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that seems, here more than ever, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from states, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the treasuries of business empires, the grasp of rioters. "Something is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Things we thought were secure and durable are deteriorating and collapsing."

Core Enigma and Her Quest

Precisely what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that animates the concluding book, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding venture into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating world he first revealed in the distant past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography corresponds to that of the real world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the people appear and think and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, essences in beast form; where the skies are filled with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, transports are caught and beverages is consumed, and older professors carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a child in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still clearly the spiky and determined main character of the prior volumes, but older, melancholic, more cautious, less sure. This limitation is intensified by her division from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

Pan's decision to depart in quest of that youthful part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an trait which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with wonder and danger on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in play, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the faith's ruling body, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of rigid, administrative malice – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the role of president of the church's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his fresh authority to extend the church's control. Another protagonist, who carried young Lyra to security along a swollen Thames as an young boy in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in intelligence work: he is assigned to Geneva to discover more about his plans. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and valuable botanical extract which appears in some way to be the origin of a societal and economic upheaval emanating out from the region. The substance is seen by certain groups as a tradeable good, by different parties as a research-based or mystical miracle, and by further factions – the zealous "highland figures" – as a origin of darkness; an insult that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its source, its significance, and if it should be removed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.

As in the first series, the heroine's actions, and her future, are shown to be inseparably connected with the future of the universe

In the previous volume, these narratives ran largely in side by side. In The Rose Field, they come together. Similar to His Dark Materials, her actions and her path are shown to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the realm. Her private quest to reunite with her companion and regain her vision becomes the key battleground in a broader war with an authoritarian regime which, as such authorities typically do, is attempting to stifle freedom of reason, creativity and art: all the inner, rebellious ways in which individuals can be free.

Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles

The novel begins with the unveiling of a series of unusual openings in the makeup of the world's atmosphere: gateways that seem to give on to other worlds. A particular opening manifests to be the source of the much debated mystical extract. The Magisterium, with its leader at its helm, labels these openings as a problem to the institution's doctrine and aims to destroy them. As the heroine begins to turn away from strict reason and back to intuition, however, her conviction that these locations must be protected – that their significance and their value is mysteriously crucial – increases. "The substance, or the substance, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a poetic struggle between purity and knowledge is established.

Plot Rhythm and Character Development

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