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Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that appears, in this volume especially, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from governments, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the treasuries of business empires, the hands of rioters. "An element is at work, stealthily, gradually", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and durable are weakening and collapsing."

Key Puzzle and Her Quest

Just what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that drives this final volume, which picks up where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's final venture into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling realm he first introduced in the distant past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose landscape aligns with that of our world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the people appear and think and behave like us, but are paired by daemons, beings in creature form; where the heavens are filled with sorceresses and gryphons, but beneath those skies, transports are ridden and tea is sipped, and older scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a adult: still recognisably the sharp and persistent main character of the previous installments, but aged, melancholic, warier, less sure. This circumscription is intensified by her split from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

The daemon's resolve to depart in pursuit of that innocent part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an trait which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with amazement and risk on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the faith's ruling body, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister representation of austere, administrative malice – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – our protagonist's family member, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the role of head of the authority's governing body, and is determined on using his recently acquired authority to extend the religion's control. A key character, who saved infant Lyra to safety along a flooded Thames as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in spycraft: he is assigned to Geneva to learn more about Delamare's plans. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and valuable essential oil which seems somehow to be the source of a societal and economic crisis rippling out from that area. The extract is seen by certain groups as a tradeable good, by alternate groups as a scientific or spiritual wonder, and by others still – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a origin of malevolence; an affront that must be destroyed. The issue of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be eliminated or protected is escalating in importance.

As in the first series, our protagonist's actions, and her destiny, are revealed to be deeply linked with the future of the world

In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran mostly in tandem. In this final book, they come together. As in His Dark Materials, her choices and her destiny are shown to be inextricably woven with the future of the universe. Her personal mission to reunite with her daemon and recover her imagination becomes the primary struggle in a broader war with an controlling government which, as such authorities often attempt, is striving to stifle freedom of thought, originality and culture: all the inner, resistant ways in which people can be liberated.

Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles

The book starts with the discovery of a collection of strange cracks in the structure of the Earth's atmosphere: gateways that look to lead to other worlds. An example of a window appears to be the point of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its helm, classifies these windows as a threat to the religion's beliefs and sets out to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to shift from inflexible rationalism and back to intuition, however, her belief that these places must be protected – that their meaning and what they offer is somehow crucial – increases. "The substance, or rose oil, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a philosophical conflict between purity and experience is set.

Narrative Pacing and Character Development

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