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Things are falling apart in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that seems, here more than ever, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or restructuring 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 theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the grasp of crowds. "Something is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and durable are deteriorating and collapsing."

The Central Mystery and Her Quest

Precisely what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that propels the concluding book, which picks up where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's final venture into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling world he first introduced three decades past, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a world whose landscape aligns with that of our world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the people appear and reason and behave like us, but are joined by daemons, beings in animal form; where the skies are populated with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, buses are taken and drinks is sipped, and middle-aged scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the prickly and persistent heroine of the earlier books, but more mature, more sorrowful, warier, more doubtful. This restraint is amplified by her division from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

The daemon's resolve to leave in pursuit of that youthful part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an quality which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous journey across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with wonder and risk on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in action, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's masterfully eerie representation of rigid, administrative wickedness – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the role of head of the church's ruling assembly, and is set on using his newfound influence to extend the church's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued baby the heroine to safety along a overflowing Thames as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a sideline in intelligence work: he is sent to a key location to discover more about the antagonist's intentions. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and valuable rose oil which appears in some way to be the origin of a societal and financial crisis rippling out from the region. The extract is regarded by various factions as a tradeable commodity, by others as a scientific or esoteric miracle, and by yet others – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a source of malevolence; an insult that must be eradicated. The question of its source, its significance, and whether it should be removed or preserved is escalating in importance.

As in the original trilogy, our protagonist's actions, and her fate, are shown to be inseparably entwined with the destiny of the universe

In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran broadly in parallel. In the conclusion, they come together. Similar to the original series, the protagonist's choices and her fate are unveiled to be inextricably woven with the destiny of the realm. Her individual journey to reunite with her daemon and rediscover her creativity becomes the central struggle in a broader battle with an oppressive system which, as these systems typically do, is seeking to quell freedom of reason, innovation and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which humans can be free.

Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles

The novel starts with the discovery of a collection of strange cracks in the fabric of the world's air: portals that appear to lead to different dimensions. An example of a window seems to be the point of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The authority, with Delamare at its leadership, classifies these portals as a problem to the institution's beliefs and aims to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from strict reason and revert to instinct, yet, her certainty that these places must be preserved – that their significance and their value is mysteriously vital – grows. "The substance, or the substance, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a Blakean struggle between purity and experience is prepared.

Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth

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