I liked the movie "The Golden Compass" too. Then I went and read the book. Very good. Then I read the 2nd book in the trilogy. Not so good at all...I actively disliked it by the end. I have never bothered to read the 3rd book, having lost my taste for the story by the end of the 2nd one.

The author of those books has a particularly negative emotional hangup that dominates his story line, and it's not one I have much natural sympathy for.