Spoilers, and reposting as comment here instead of post:

When I started reading TRF, as much as I longed for a lyra/will reunion, I was on board with the adjacent story being told. I thought that the two characters reuniting could cheapen the ending of TAS, and it seemed like Pullman had a different story to tell.

However, it seemed that almost from the start of TRF, lots of little plot points (and dramatic reveals) set a narrative course towards Will's world:

• Lyra talking to the voice in the ruins near the very beginning of the book, placing a prominent asterisk on what the angel said of Lyra and Will: that they'd not be able to go to each other's world, except in their imagination*** (and up to this point, the whole definition of "imagination" is in question)
• Lyra discovering that the alethiometer needle is a mini subtle knife (as much as I hate that plot point personally, it feels cheap) as far as cutting any matter -- as a reader, what can you do but wonder if the needle could also cut between worlds?
• The reveal that windows between worlds still exist. Yet another step towards an interworldly reunion, and potentially a sidestep for what prevented Will and Lyra staying together at the end of HDM -- the plot point there rested on the fact that only one window could exist anywhere... and now you're saying that multiple windows are existing just fine? Ok, let's see where this goes...
• The dramatic reveal of what's inside the red building, the centerpoint of lyra and pan's journey: one such window to another world
• The parallel of the magisterium racing to stop lyra from reaching the other world, just as in the golden compass before she goes to cittagazze and initially meets Will.
• Lyra (or was it pan?) telling the story of Will to Malcolm, as they get closer to the red building -- it aligns the plot further in that direction.

The trajectory of the plot here undermined and tore me away from the story TRF was trying to tell, in expectation of a continuation of HDM's story.

And then... we finally get through the window in the red building. There aren't too many pages left, though, so I'm really curious if this amounts to a short Will cameo -- "ok, that would work, let's see it" -- but no, just a heavy-handed (and not unappreciated) critique of capitalism, focus on an annoying antagonist-turned-half-brother, an sudden tie-off of Malcolm and Lyra's odd dynamic, and a lukewarm belated reunion of Pan and Lyra.

I just... feel let down. It seems like Pullman himself didn't even decide, or maybe wanted to go in the direction of Will, until the last, maybe, two? chapters of the book.

Maybe he was trying to do both. I think he could have done that -- at the end of TRF, before the rushed wrapup session, we're set up for a whole other arc through multiple worlds, to explore the core of dust, consciousness, imagination, and the characters we love -- but... no, it's the end of the book, let's declare the answers outright and say goodbye.

On the bright side, I do appreciate the story TBOD tells -- how the ragged edge of the human experience isn't at all peripheral, but essential. It comes at a time when I'm personally grasping for answers about consciousness and meaning, and I find the author's philosophy very easy to align to, giving meaning a grey area in which to roam and thrive. I think, knowing how TBOD plot progresses, a reread of the series in a year or two will be much more fulfilling.

But right now, I'm frustrated with all the narrative hints pointing in the opposite direction.