Harry Potter 5
Jul. 31st, 2007 03:42 pmJ.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Ah, the Ugly Blue Book at last. In which people keep secrets from the main characters for no reason, with predictably disastrous results. Such as Harry turning into a ball of repressed teenage wizard rage. At least he's got a good sulking partner in Sirius.
Oh look, a bloody /psycho/ house-elf. This is not an improvement.
You know, at the point where the first book was suddenly starting to develop a plot, this one is still mucking about with the trumped-up Wizengamot trial.
"Gryffindors get busted for no reason while Slytherins skate free" has been a running theme since midway through book 1, and it got old by three-quarters of the way through book 1. Maybe it's the rampant abuses of authority by every single character (with the surprising exception of McGonagall), but that sort of thing is exceedingly grating this time around. Or maybe it's just that there's more of it and it's more blatant. (Has no one in Quidditch ever heard of sportsmanship?)
Harry/Cho is handled pretty well. I like Tonks, and I like that Moody is not the same as he was last book. And when did Ginny Weasley become a real character? Dumbledore, too. Wow.
Oddly it's not the glimpse into Snape's past that makes me like him better; it's his reaction to Harry discovering it.
Umbridge ended up too over-the-top, but then her final fate was pretty over-the-top as well. Bleh. Glad to see the back of her.
Decent but not 850 pages worth of decent.
Ah, the Ugly Blue Book at last. In which people keep secrets from the main characters for no reason, with predictably disastrous results. Such as Harry turning into a ball of repressed teenage wizard rage. At least he's got a good sulking partner in Sirius.
Oh look, a bloody /psycho/ house-elf. This is not an improvement.
You know, at the point where the first book was suddenly starting to develop a plot, this one is still mucking about with the trumped-up Wizengamot trial.
"Gryffindors get busted for no reason while Slytherins skate free" has been a running theme since midway through book 1, and it got old by three-quarters of the way through book 1. Maybe it's the rampant abuses of authority by every single character (with the surprising exception of McGonagall), but that sort of thing is exceedingly grating this time around. Or maybe it's just that there's more of it and it's more blatant. (Has no one in Quidditch ever heard of sportsmanship?)
Harry/Cho is handled pretty well. I like Tonks, and I like that Moody is not the same as he was last book. And when did Ginny Weasley become a real character? Dumbledore, too. Wow.
Oddly it's not the glimpse into Snape's past that makes me like him better; it's his reaction to Harry discovering it.
Umbridge ended up too over-the-top, but then her final fate was pretty over-the-top as well. Bleh. Glad to see the back of her.
Decent but not 850 pages worth of decent.