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Things are falling apart in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a realm that seems, now more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reorganizing themselves along new and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from authorities, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of business empires, the control of crowds. "Something is at work, silently, gradually", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an city cafe. "Things we thought were secure and strong are weakening and giving way."

The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey

Just what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that animates this final volume, which continues where the previous book ended. This is, according to many, the author's last foray into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating realm he first introduced in the distant past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose landscape maps on to that of the real world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the people appear and reason and behave like us, but are paired by external spirits, beings in creature form; where the air are filled with witches and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, transports are ridden and beverages is drunk, and older professors carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the sharp and persistent heroine of the prior volumes, but aged, sadder, more cautious, less certain. This limitation is intensified by her separation from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

The daemon's resolve to depart in pursuit of that innocent part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an trait which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with amazement and danger on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in action, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the faith's controlling power, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of austere, administrative wickedness – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who faults her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the position of leader of the authority's High Council, and is set on using his newfound power to extend the church's control. Another protagonist, who saved infant Lyra to safety along a flooded river as an young boy in the first book, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in espionage: he is sent to Geneva to learn more about Delamare's plans. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and valuable essential oil which manifests somehow to be the origin of a social and financial upheaval emanating out from Central Asia. The extract is regarded by various factions as a commercial product, by different parties as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by others still – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a source of darkness; an insult that must be eradicated. The issue of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.

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

In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran largely in side by side. In The Rose Field, they merge. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's choices and her destiny are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the universe. Her individual journey to rejoin with her soul and rediscover her vision becomes the primary battleground in a larger conflict with an oppressive system which, as these systems typically do, is striving to stifle independence of reason, innovation and culture: all the inner, resistant ways in which humans can be liberated.

Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts

The book begins with the discovery of a set of strange openings in the makeup of the planet's air: gateways that appear to open into alternate realities. One such opening appears to be the source of the much debated botanical substance. The church, with its leader at its head, classifies these windows as a problem to the religion's beliefs and aims to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to move from rigid reason and back to intuition, yet, her certainty that these sites must be protected – that what they stand for and their value is mysteriously crucial – increases. "The substance, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a Blakean struggle between innocence and maturity is prepared.

Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution

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