While I enjoyed stepping back into Nix's world, Goldenhand was, in a number of ways, a disappointing addition to the Old Kingdom series. I liked hearing more about what Nicholas Sayre is becoming, as his heroic growth in "The Creature in the Case" is fascinating to me as a pathway into the study of the mundane versus the fantastic in Nix's work. However, so many plot-lines were started and discarded, characters experienced very little in the way of the heroic growth the first books in the series accomplished, and the plot moved forward either very slowly or, at the end, incredibly quickly that I cannot rate this novel very highly. The story felt like it ought to have been told from other characters perspectives at times, especially when the most character growth was happening to characters other than the narrator in a scene. I also felt that the ending defied the logic of the necromancy of previous books, without any explanation as to why it must be done differently this time. 
 (view spoiler)[ Lirael's quest to destroy Chlorr's body, after all, mirrors Sabriel's quest to destroy Kerrigor's in the first book, yet instead of simply burning the body so that it could not longer serve as a connection for Chlorr as Sabriel was planning to do until Kerrigor showed up and nixed that plan, Lirael goes into death after a piece of the Chlorr's soul that someone familiar with Nix's work would have no reason to suspect was even there. While Nix may have an explanation for this deviation, it was not articulated within the novel itself. (hide spoiler)] 
 I was, frankly, disappointed with this novel.