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Things are falling apart in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a world that appears, now more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the hands of mobs. "An element is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and strong are weakening and collapsing."

The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey

Just what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that propels The Rose Field, which resumes where the previous book ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's final foray into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating world he first unveiled three decades past, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a world whose landscape corresponds to that of our world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and reason and behave like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, beings in creature form; where the heavens are populated with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but below, vehicles are ridden and drinks is sipped, and middle-aged academics carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still distinctly the spiky and determined main character of the earlier books, but aged, sadder, more careful, more doubtful. This circumscription is heightened by her division from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

Pan's decision to go off in quest of that childlike part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which followed Lyra undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with marvel and risk on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in action, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister embodiment of strict, procedural malice – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. The antagonist – the heroine's family member, who faults her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of head of the authority's High Council, and is determined on using his recently acquired power to expand the institution's control. A key character, who rescued infant Lyra to security along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to a key location to find out more about his plans. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and costly botanical extract which manifests in some way to be the origin of a societal and financial crisis spreading out from that area. The extract is seen by various factions as a commercial product, by alternate groups as a empirical or esoteric miracle, and by further factions – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a source of malevolence; an challenge that must be eradicated. The issue of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be eliminated or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.

As in the first series, the heroine's deeds, and her destiny, are revealed to be deeply connected with the fate of the world

In the previous volume, these narratives ran largely in side by side. In The Rose Field, they merge. As in the first trilogy, her choices and her fate are shown to be inseparably woven with the fate of the universe. Her personal journey to rejoin with her companion and regain her vision becomes the central battleground in a broader conflict with an oppressive regime which, as such regimes always have, is attempting to stifle freedom of reason, innovation and culture: all the inner, defiant ways in which humans can be independent.

Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles

The novel begins with the finding of a collection of unusual cracks in the structure of the world's atmosphere: portals that look to give on to different dimensions. An example of a portal manifests to be the point of the much debated rose oil. The authority, with Delamare at its head, labels these portals as a problem to the church's doctrine and endeavors to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from strict rationalism and back to feeling, yet, her belief that these sites must be preserved – that what they stand for and their value is somehow essential – increases. "The substance, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a Blakean struggle between purity and experience is established.

Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution

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