** spoiler alert ** I found myself much more riveted to this book than to The Golden Compass. I was eager to find out about Will's mysterious father, and how he and Lyra would react to each other's worlds. The plot involving Dust is shaping up to be quite interesting (it's sentient, it communicates, it has kind of a smart-ass attitude that I found funny.) Some people have complained that Lyra seems weaker in this book, with Will always bossing her around, but it makes sense to me. Most of the story takes place in our world where Will knows his way around more than Lyra. Besides, this is "his" book like the first one was Lyra's.
I only really have one complaint: we hear quite a few characters insisting that the fate of all the worlds depends on defeating this "Authority", but I'm really not feeling the urgency. We haven't even seen him. The Magisterium are suppposed to be his representatives, but I see no evidence that the whole universe is suffering under their power. Granted, the book makes its point that they are not nice people, but we've seen whole societies living completely outside their influence (the witches, the bears) and going about their business happily. That's one place this series fails, in my opinion, to be the atheist/agnostic "Chronicles of Narnia". At least it was pretty clear why everyone wanted to kill the White Witch so badly. But why not just ignore the Authority?
And I have one nit to pick: why do people (like Will's father) have their daemon move from inside to out when the cross into the other world but people (like Lyra) who already have daemons keep them outside when they cross into ours? Did that make sense?
Still, I definately am looking forward to the conclusion of the trilogy. My burning question: What will Pan ultimately turn into?