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Tings are unraveling in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that appears, in this volume especially, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along new and troubling lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from authorities, and accumulating in the offices of religious leaders, the coffers of business empires, the hands of crowds. "Some force is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were secure and solid are faltering and failing."

Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey

Just what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that propels this final volume, which resumes where its predecessor left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's final venture into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling world he first revealed in the distant past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose geography aligns with that of our world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the individuals look and reason and act like us, but are paired by daemons, souls in animal form; where the skies are filled with enchantresses and gryphons, but underneath, transports are taken and drinks is drunk, and older professors carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a child in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the prequel, the prequel with which Pullman began the series, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the sharp and determined heroine of the previous installments, but aged, more sorrowful, more cautious, more doubtful. This limitation is intensified by her division from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that innocent part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an trait which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with marvel and danger on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in action, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of austere, procedural evil – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's family member, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the office of head of the church's ruling assembly, and is set on using his recently acquired authority to expand the institution's dominium. Another protagonist, who rescued young Lyra to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an child in the first book, is now an academic with a secondary role in espionage: he is sent to a key location to discover more about his aims. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and precious essential oil which manifests somehow to be the source of a social and economic disturbance emanating out from the region. The oil is seen by various factions as a tradeable commodity, by alternate groups as a scientific or spiritual wonder, and by yet others – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a source of malevolence; an insult that must be eradicated. The question of where it comes from, its significance, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.

Similar to the first series, our protagonist's actions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the realm

In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran largely in side by side. In the conclusion, they merge. As in the original series, the protagonist's movements and her fate are shown to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the world. Her private quest to reconnect with her daemon and rediscover her vision becomes the primary conflict in a wider battle with an controlling system which, as such regimes often attempt, is striving to suppress freedom of reason, originality and expression: all the internal, rebellious ways in which people can be free.

Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles

The story opens with the finding of a set of curious fissures in the fabric of the Earth's sky: portals that appear to lead to alternate realities. An example of a portal appears to be the origin of the highly contested botanical substance. The authority, with Delamare at its head, classifies these portals as a threat to the church's orthodoxy and endeavors to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to move from inflexible rationalism and revert to intuition, yet, her certainty that these places must be defended – that their significance and their value is in some way essential – strengthens. "The substance, or the extract, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a poetic struggle between innocence and maturity is established.

Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth

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