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Things are falling apart in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the next of the author's masterful trilogies set in a realm that manifests, now more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along new and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from states, and accumulating in the halls of religious leaders, the vaults of business empires, the grasp of mobs. "Something is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and durable are deteriorating and giving way."

Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey

Just what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that animates The Rose Field, which continues where its predecessor left off. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's last excursion into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating universe he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose terrain maps on to that of this world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the humans appear and think and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, beings in beast form; where the skies are teeming with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, vehicles are taken and drinks is consumed, and mature academics carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still recognisably the prickly and persistent main character of the prior volumes, but aged, more sorrowful, more cautious, less sure. This restraint is heightened by her separation from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

The daemon's resolve to leave in search of that youthful part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which followed Lyra undertake a adventurous journey across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with wonder and danger on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling embodiment of strict, administrative evil – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. The antagonist – Lyra's relative, who faults her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the role of head of the church's governing body, and is determined on using his newfound authority to expand the church's rule. A key character, who saved baby Lyra to security along a overflowing river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in spycraft: he is dispatched to Geneva to find out more about Delamare's aims. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and costly essential oil which appears somehow to be the origin of a social and economic crisis spreading out from Central Asia. The substance is viewed by some as a commercial good, by different parties as a research-based or mystical wonder, and by others still – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a source of darkness; an challenge that must be obliterated. The issue of where it comes from, its significance, and whether it should be eliminated or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.

Like the original trilogy, Lyra's decisions, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inseparably connected with the fate of the realm

In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran largely in tandem. In the conclusion, they merge. Similar to the original series, Lyra's actions and her fate are revealed to be inseparably woven with the fate of the realm. Her individual mission to rejoin with her soul and rediscover her vision becomes the key struggle in a broader conflict with an oppressive regime which, as these systems typically do, is striving to stifle freedom of thought, creativity and expression: all the internal, defiant ways in which people can be free.

Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts

The story starts with the unveiling of a series of unusual openings in the structure of the Earth's sky: gateways that look to open into different dimensions. One such opening appears to be the origin of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The church, with the antagonist at its leadership, classifies these openings as a challenge to the church's orthodoxy and endeavors to destroy them. As the heroine begins to move from strict logic and revert to instinct, nevertheless, her belief that these sites must be preserved – that their significance and what they offer is mysteriously essential – grows. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a Blakean conflict between purity and maturity is prepared.

Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth

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