Harry Potter 6 and 7
Aug. 3rd, 2007 09:55 amJ.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
This is the best of them so far, I think. There is Plot, there is Character, there is Harry being treated like an adult, there is a dearth of pointless digression. Dumbledore is irritatingly secretive with his blackened hand, but other than that people are pretty open with each other about what's going on.
Yay Snape finally gets to teach DADA! (Why did D not just promote him last year and save us all the trouble of dealing with Umbridge?) Evil Snape is pretty believable, I must say. I'm sticking with my 'he's really a good guy' theory, as implausible as it seems given the end of the book. I base this solely on D's "Go get Snape" order.
Good to see Draco do something other than 'be an annoying little git.' Angst-filled Tonks doesn't work for me. Maybe if we'd seen more of her in this book it would have.
The Half-Blood Prince bit is the weakest thing about the book. A neat idea but poorly integrated with everything else.
I very nearly threw the book across the room when Harry broke up with Ginny "for her own good."
Lots of zooming around doing cool things, and uncovering bits and pieces of backstory, and general good times. Enjoyable.
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
In which (almost) everyone dies.
This wouldn't have been so bad if there had been any sort of precedent in the books at /all/ for this kind of mass slaughter. That's not the tone we'd been getting, though, so it feels exceptionally jarring. (Okay, and also I'm bitter at some of the who lives and who dies decisions that were made.)
Individual episodes were good. The raid on the Ministry in particular was made of yay. And the plot's alright except for the totally random element introduced that there was absolutely no hint of previously. Do not talk to me about how JKR has had so much awesome planned out from the very beginning. Evil Snape was pretty clearly invented between five and six, and the Hallows popped into existence between six and seven. (As did D's Mysterious Past.)
Speaking of which, the Redemption of Snape was rather unsatisfying. Mostly because, well, what good does it do /him/? Dramatically, hearing about it in backstory instead of having him tell (or, preferably, show) just doesn't work. Compare with the Malfoys, who actually became barely sympathetic towards the end.
"All the Slytherins are evil" is just lazy writing. I've thought this since book 5. Having one or two of them join the impromptu DADA lessons, and then having one of those stay behind, would have improved matters immeasurably. As it is, "all the houses have to work together! (except Slytherin.)" Remind me again why they still /have/ houses in the epilogue?
O yes, the epilogue. A bigger waste of paper I cannot conceive of. Absolutely the only thing of value there was the suggestion that the feud between Gryffindor and Slytherin, personified in Harry's and Draco's kids, would continue. Bleh and double bleh.
Mostly disappointing. Worth reading to wrap things up but doesn't stand on its own legs at all.
And now, off to read the comments on Making Light.
This is the best of them so far, I think. There is Plot, there is Character, there is Harry being treated like an adult, there is a dearth of pointless digression. Dumbledore is irritatingly secretive with his blackened hand, but other than that people are pretty open with each other about what's going on.
Yay Snape finally gets to teach DADA! (Why did D not just promote him last year and save us all the trouble of dealing with Umbridge?) Evil Snape is pretty believable, I must say. I'm sticking with my 'he's really a good guy' theory, as implausible as it seems given the end of the book. I base this solely on D's "Go get Snape" order.
Good to see Draco do something other than 'be an annoying little git.' Angst-filled Tonks doesn't work for me. Maybe if we'd seen more of her in this book it would have.
The Half-Blood Prince bit is the weakest thing about the book. A neat idea but poorly integrated with everything else.
I very nearly threw the book across the room when Harry broke up with Ginny "for her own good."
Lots of zooming around doing cool things, and uncovering bits and pieces of backstory, and general good times. Enjoyable.
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
In which (almost) everyone dies.
This wouldn't have been so bad if there had been any sort of precedent in the books at /all/ for this kind of mass slaughter. That's not the tone we'd been getting, though, so it feels exceptionally jarring. (Okay, and also I'm bitter at some of the who lives and who dies decisions that were made.)
Individual episodes were good. The raid on the Ministry in particular was made of yay. And the plot's alright except for the totally random element introduced that there was absolutely no hint of previously. Do not talk to me about how JKR has had so much awesome planned out from the very beginning. Evil Snape was pretty clearly invented between five and six, and the Hallows popped into existence between six and seven. (As did D's Mysterious Past.)
Speaking of which, the Redemption of Snape was rather unsatisfying. Mostly because, well, what good does it do /him/? Dramatically, hearing about it in backstory instead of having him tell (or, preferably, show) just doesn't work. Compare with the Malfoys, who actually became barely sympathetic towards the end.
"All the Slytherins are evil" is just lazy writing. I've thought this since book 5. Having one or two of them join the impromptu DADA lessons, and then having one of those stay behind, would have improved matters immeasurably. As it is, "all the houses have to work together! (except Slytherin.)" Remind me again why they still /have/ houses in the epilogue?
O yes, the epilogue. A bigger waste of paper I cannot conceive of. Absolutely the only thing of value there was the suggestion that the feud between Gryffindor and Slytherin, personified in Harry's and Draco's kids, would continue. Bleh and double bleh.
Mostly disappointing. Worth reading to wrap things up but doesn't stand on its own legs at all.
And now, off to read the comments on Making Light.