I'm not sure Pullman's writing is for me. I liked the Golden Compass well enough, but I'm not sure what to say about this sequel. 
 I had problems with the characterization of Lyra. She went from a strong-willed, witty and smart hero to a secondary, weak, dim-witted child version of the damsel in distress. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading about Will, but I don't understand the changes in Lyra. 
 As for the rest of the characters, I found them underdeveloped. I'm not sure how to put in words, but roughly, none of them left me with the impression that they could be real people. None of them developed anywhere from the last book. I understand that the time lapse in the storyline since the previous book is practically nonexistent, but I was hoping I wound find out more about them; about their pasts, motives, and lives in general. 
 I did enjoy the world building; I found most of its peculiarities very intriguing. Unfortunately, that was practically all that kept me reading, which is not a good sign, as you can surely guess. 
 On other subject, I would have liked the themes treated in this work to have been handed over with a little more subtlety. These books tried too hard to impregnate the author's ideals in the reader, yet failing to do so in an intelligent, critic and deep way. 
 On a side note, I can't picture a kid reading this. It reads like an adult book, not even middle-grade. 
 In summary, the idea and premise was great, the execution poor. But hey, maybe I just didn't get this book at all; maybe it's my fault for reading books for children. Except... Some of the deepest, best-written, wondrous and escapist books I've read were those aimed at young audiences. Anyway, that's a whole other subject. 
 I probably won't read the next book. I just clashed with this series, as you can guess for the near-month that took me to finish it.