I...okay, the problem with this book is that it’s a prequel and so it has no stakes. And it’s not that prequels can’t have stakes and it’s not that you can’t real LOTR before the Hobbit, but this book is still far too bound up with His Dark Materials for it to be an effective prequel. The story seems to be about what happens to Lyra, but we already KNOW what happens to Lyra so why do I want to read this book? We know ALL the mysteries the characters don’t!
Anyway, Pullman's still a talented stylist, but this book just doesn’t really have a story there...