The series finds a pace, the whole of the series opens up but the “power” of the author over the editor starts to show

We return to Hogwarts with or hero turning 14 and ominous badness happening. I think JK is writing in full series mode now and the pacing shows that. Things slow down. Not that they get slow but she allows more things to happen in smaller time frames. She also raises the complexity level quite a bit. She starts asking the reader to pay more attention to little details.

There are some things about this volume of note:

• The book opens with Wormtail and “his boss” discussing things. This is the first time we have a scene in any book that Harry is not in. The first time she breaks out of her restricted third person view. I liked it because it is fatiguing sometimes, and I hoped that we would get more chapters like this. Not so.
• The number of characters in this work is double any previous. Gotta pay attention because they are all over . The tri-wizard tournament brings in rival schools and it is cool to see this idea fleshed out.
• Romance rears its ugly head for the first time. Though I understand at this age girls start to become de-cootied it felt like more of an after thought to get the “boys” to notice Hermione as a “girl”.

There was one glaring continuity error that I noticed .

PLOT POINTS REVEALED

At the end with the Voldermort battle, when the wands lock and the spells start cycling backwards, Harry’s dad spits out before his mom. Since we are told Harry’s dad dies first and his mother died defending him, his mom should come out first.

In forming the truest of series writing, the final chapter is titled “The Beginning”. In this she basically lays out the beginnings of book 5.

On the “making it big time” front, JK won the Hugo award for this volume. It is one of 2 major awards in SF/Fantasy, the other being the Nebula. Scott asked me for my opinion when I was done this volume in regards to the award. Did it win on merit or was it a weak year? So I looked up the Hugo award list for that year. Here were the nominees:

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
• Calculating God by Robert J Sawyer
• The Sky Road by Ken Macleod
• A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
• Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson

Now I have not read any of the other works but I am very familiar with with both Calculating God and Storm of Swords. To say it was a weak year I say is false, so we have to consider the merit factor. Hmmmm…… I am not so sure here. Ok, Calculating God may be a bit to risky, a story of creationism with hard SF (seriously) but Storm of Swords - book 3 of the Song of Fire and Ice series? Mr. Martin is literally considered the best fantasy writer since the other R.R. and Storm of Swords is considered the best of the series. Could it be to obscure? Not buying that, Storm of Sword was a NYT bestseller - without the MASSIVE marketing around the Harry Potter series. Nope. I think this is a “we better get in and reward the series” kind of award. Even award people feel guilty for missing something when the going is good (aka see the Grammys Santana won for Supernatural - “Ahhh sorry about that whole ignoring Abraxas thing”).

Overall, I did enjoy this. Maybe more than the others because the series arc is in full swing. I also agree with Mike on a point he made that he felt during book 3, which I did not until this book. In the first 3 books, I was very aware I was reading a book for younger readers, but not so while reading this one.

We also have 300 more pages than any previous volumes and it is starting to show the power of the author over the editor. I am worried the series may suffer some as a result. The next book is nearly 900 pages (and I am now half way through). I know she cuts back after that, hopefully the editor found their “balls”.

A special thanks to my brother Brian at this point. He gave me his extra 4 copies of the Harry Potter books in hardback. I would not have even considered this without the most generous gift. Thanks dude.