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Things are collapsing in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a world that manifests, now more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or restructuring themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from states, and pooling in the halls of theocrats, the vaults of conglomerates, the control of crowds. "Some force is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and strong are weakening and giving way."

Key Puzzle and Her Quest

Exactly what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that drives The Rose Field, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding excursion into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling universe he first revealed 30 years ago, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a world whose geography maps on to that of this world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, essences in animal form; where the heavens are filled with enchantresses and gryphons, but beneath those skies, vehicles are caught and drinks is sipped, and older academics carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the first volume, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still recognisably the spiky and determined protagonist of the prior volumes, but more mature, more sorrowful, warier, less certain. This circumscription is heightened by her separation from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

His choice to depart in pursuit of that youthful part of her which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he represents as her "vision"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with wonder and risk on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the faith's controlling power, and the author's masterfully eerie incarnation of strict, procedural wickedness – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. The antagonist – the heroine's relative, who blames her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the position of leader of the authority's High Council, and is intent on using his recently acquired power to expand the church's rule. Another protagonist, who rescued young the heroine to safety along a flooded Thames as an young boy in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is dispatched to the city to find out more about his aims. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and costly rose oil which appears mysteriously to be the origin of a social and economic disturbance emanating out from Central Asia. The oil is viewed by some as a tradeable commodity, by different parties as a scientific or esoteric phenomenon, and by yet others – the zealous "highland figures" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an insult that must be eradicated. The issue of its source, its meaning, and if it should be eliminated or safeguarded is becoming urgent.

Like His Dark Materials, our protagonist's actions, and her future, are demonstrated to be inseparably linked with the fate of the realm

In its predecessor, these narratives ran largely in side by side. In The Rose Field, they merge. Like the original series, the protagonist's movements and her path are revealed to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the world. Her personal journey to reconnect with her daemon and regain her creativity becomes the key battleground in a wider war with an oppressive regime which, as such authorities typically do, is attempting to stifle independence of thought, originality and art: all the personal, rebellious ways in which people can be independent.

Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles

The story begins with the unveiling of a set of unusual cracks in the fabric of the Earth's air: windows that appear to give on to other worlds. An example of a portal appears to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its head, labels these openings as a problem to the institution's orthodoxy and endeavors to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to move from inflexible reason and revert to feeling, nevertheless, her belief that these places must be protected – that their significance and what they offer is somehow essential – grows. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a poetic struggle between naivety and experience is set.

Story Tempo and Personal Evolution

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