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Things are falling apart in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that manifests, in this volume especially, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from authorities, and accumulating in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the grasp of rioters. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and durable are faltering and collapsing."

The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey

Just what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that propels the concluding book, which continues where the previous book left off. This is, reportedly, the author's last excursion into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling world he first revealed three decades past, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a world whose geography corresponds to that of our world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the people appear and reason and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, beings in beast form; where the heavens are teeming with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, transports are taken and tea is sipped, and middle-aged academics carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the prequel, the origin story with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still recognisably the sharp and determined heroine of the prior volumes, but aged, melancholic, more cautious, less certain. This circumscription is intensified by her separation from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

His choice to go off in pursuit of that innocent part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an trait which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with amazement and danger on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in play, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister embodiment of rigid, procedural evil – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the role of president of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is set on using his recently acquired power to extend the church's control. Another protagonist, who rescued baby Lyra to safety along a overflowing Thames as an young boy in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in espionage: he is dispatched to Geneva to find out more about his plans. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and valuable essential oil which manifests somehow to be the source of a societal and financial disturbance rippling out from that area. The extract is viewed by some as a commercial product, by alternate groups as a empirical or esoteric wonder, and by further factions – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a origin of darkness; an affront that must be eradicated. The question of its origins, its significance, and if it should be removed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.

Like the first series, Lyra's deeds, and her future, are demonstrated to be deeply connected with the destiny of the realm

In the previous volume, these plots ran mostly in side by side. In the conclusion, they converge. As in the first trilogy, her movements and her destiny are revealed to be inextricably linked with the fate of the realm. Her private quest to reunite with her soul and regain her imagination becomes the primary struggle in a wider battle with an oppressive regime which, as these systems always have, is striving to suppress autonomy of reason, innovation and culture: all the inner, defiant ways in which individuals can be free.

Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles

The story begins with the discovery of a collection of unusual openings in the structure of the Earth's air: portals that appear to open into alternate realities. A particular window manifests to be the origin of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The Magisterium, with its leader at its head, labels these portals as a problem to the institution's beliefs and aims to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to move from inflexible reason and return to instinct, nevertheless, her belief that these locations must be defended – that their meaning and what they provide is mysteriously crucial – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a philosophical tussle between purity and maturity is prepared.

Plot Rhythm and Character Development

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