Guys, guys...
Firstly, a better writer, well the 'Adventures of the Raven' Trilogy (I forget who they are by, they have colored page-edges, so they should be easy to spot in a bookshop) Are better, as are the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy by Phillip Paulman.
And I didn't say fighting, I just meant there seemd to be a lot of unneccasary characters, groups and locations that are mentioned once and then vanish.