The series comes to a conclusion that is both satisfying and a bit full in the last “course”. Overall JK delivers what people want, answers and mystery at the same time

To avoid the spoiler badness you will have to continue reading by following the link.

So after reading the first 6 Harry Potter books in order before the release of the final volume, Brian suggested the idea of a “discussion” of theories about the up coming ending. I thought that seemed a pretty smart idea.

So on that note – Onto the Theories, Ideas and Whims.

Is Harry Going to Die?? - Let’s start with the big question shall we. I think — YES!! There are a lot of ifs, ands, or buts here. There is even a campaign with major authors not to kill Harry. I think JK will have Harry die. I also feel like there is more to this.

Will Harry be dead…..REALLY DEAD? I think NO. I bet there is some magic “thing” that will allow him to come back. And on that note…..

IS Sirius Black dead? – Come on – is that a tough one. Rule number one of death – no body, no death. He will be back. And my guess will be to save Harry again. He may even die (again)

What about Dumbledore? — This one could go either way. DID Snape REALLY kill him??? Was there some sorta thing going on? What about the Phoenix idea. My thoughts….. IF Dumbledore comes back – she ripped off Gandalf, if he turns up as a ghost/spirit/talking from the dead – she ripped off Obi-wan Kenobi.

Who is R.A.B.?? – Not sure but my guess is it is Regulus [A.] Black, younger brother of Sirius.

Getting back to the Dursleys — Harry is of age, so they do not HAVE to take him back in. This restores or energizes the spell which helps protect him. Will they take him back?? Will they play any role in the end of the story??

Will Bill and Fluer’s wedding have any “catches”?? Seems a nice place to start the story.

Will Hogwarts reopen…. MAYBE?? Not sure about this. I think ultimately YES. but probably not at the beginning.

Will Harry have to find Horcruxes?? This is interesting because if so, then the first 2/3 of the book are easily him questing after them. And even figuring out what and where they are. I think something will happen to wrap this up more quickly considering Dumbledore did not know where all of them were.

What about Snape? - – Yeah – here is my theory. Snape is crazy deep undercover – like Jack Bauer deep. Seriously. JK has developed the tendency to lead us one way (through Harry’s eyes and emotions and mistakes/triumphs) and then POOF – they are not like that at all. I think Dumbledore was 100% aware of Snape’s vow and was “in” on things on some level. We still have never 100% discovered why Dumbledored trusted Snape so much. Harry has a weird prejudice against Slythern in general so that has to play in somewhere. On that note….

Draco…What’s up? – I think there will be some form of reconciliation between them. The constant buzz from book 4 on was this sense of working together and not divided into the 4 houses. There has already been a form of cooperartion between the other 3 houses when they had the Dumbledore’s Army stuff…… and on that note.

Will Dumbledore’s Army play any role?? — I think so yes. I think that will defenetly be something that will happen.

Will anyone die as a result? – I think we may get our world rocked. I think we are due for a couple major charcters to bite it. Who? hmmmmmm -I am not sure. Gut feeling is Hagrid, Sirius (see not above), Lupin and either Ron or Hermione. Yeah – everyone

Ron and Hermione? — Total hook up – at the wedding. Finally. They already bicker like a married couple.

Neville Longbottom? – I think he is more than he appears. What capacity I am not sure, but something is there.

What about Dolores Umbridge? – I think she will play a role, and he megalomania will get the better of her. It will be a mess.

And the Ministry of Magic?? - Yeah – not sure here. I think it’s capacity will be changed. Could Muggles become aware of the Magic-folk around them because of the return of Voldermort?

Peter Pettigrew – you know Wormtail? – Interesting little tid bit here, remember he owes Harry a life debt. Look for this to come into play in a/the battle with Voldermort.

OH – and Voldermort?? I think Harry will kill him but it will be at great expense and sacrifice. What that will be is hard to guess, but I think death will play a role.

On some other notes that are just “things” that could or could not happen — I think Norbert, his dragon from HP1 – will be back. Been 6 years, he will be a big one. I think Hagrid’s half-brother Grawp could have a role.

I have some concerns about the last book. She has A LOT to squeeze in. She is going to have to do something about the Horcruxes. Seriously, finding them is like a whole book in itself. Also, as I stated at the end of the review for HP6, the loyalty thing is redeeming with Harry and Ron and Hermione going it together, but it sorta flies in the face of the valiant knight thing.

I think ultimately the tool that will allow Harry to win is this Love. As Dumbledore has stated all along, love is the most powerful.

Ok — your turn.

Year 6 at Hogwarts and the battle begins to focus. Plus, the editors show back up and help shape this into the best crafted book of the series.

This volume we find Harry back at Hogwarts, under the careful guise of Dumbledore. This time out, Dumbledore watches over Harry and instructs him himself. This creates a cool plot device that JK uses and in this volume the writing takes a tick up and is much more focused. After the sprawl of HP5, it is nice to see the length again carried by the story; closer to HP4. I think this maturity in the writing led to this perhaps being the most enjoyable read of the set.

One of the things she does in HP6, and was needed, is give us Voldermort’s backstory. This is done in the cleaver fashion of lessons with Dumbledore. It gives him, Voldermort, more meat on his bones. Instead of being the infamous baddie with a mission, he is a person. That is important. It is like the humanizing of Darth Vader to some level.

Some notes on this volume:

• Narration: Like HP4, we get some narration without it being a restrictive 3rd person view (aka only if Harry is there) . This allows more feel, more plot, and more intellegence in the writing. In this volume we get 2 chapters , the first 2, in a different narration view. I really think this helps create mood
• Harry’s lessons with Dumbledore, or how to get flashbacks into a book: I think the lessons with Dumbledore were great because we get flashbacks – a first! And they are used very wisely.
• Major Characters: After the ending of this, they are all on the stake. Anyone or everyone could die. I have some ideas of about this, and will post a “Theories, Ideas and Whims about Harry Potter” soon so we can all discuss the possiblities

I have mixed feelings about the ending in this one. And it is over the relationships thing. I think the ending of things with Ginny to “protect her” is a little thin. First, he is still “groovy” for her and so using her – as suggested by what happen in HP2 – would still result in heroic efforts. Second – since he is choosing the bad-ass loner method, he then says OK-DOKY to Ron and Hermione coming along for the ride. Thought this was kinda lamish (did I just make that word up??).

As far as the future and my feelings towards or about characters and where they are headed- that will end up in my “Theories, Ideas and Whims” post. I will have that up soon.

Year 5 at hogwarts — and things (from a writing perspective) get a little long winded!

I finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix about 10 days ago. I am only getting to the review now. This book, more than the previous, is the beginning of the coming of age portion of Harry’s life. More hormonal outrage, crushes, and growth stuff. More on some of those. This book also shows JK at her author powers over editor. This book weighs in at a whopping 870 pages. Now, this is longer than any previous volume by about 20% but it is even longer than that!! ALL of the other volumes are set in 12 point type, this is 11.5. You say “big deal”. Well let’s do some quick math. The smaller type face allows for approximately 5% more words per page. By that argument, the book would be 5% longer if set in 12 point – making it about 914 pages. I have not gone and counted the number of lines on each page, but if that was even increased by one – that would have the book ring in at about 1000 pages. I am not oppossed to long works – not at all – IF THEY can carry that length. And here is where the problem with this book comes in. The middle – it is VERY bulky. Like 200- 250 pages bulky. Seriously. I know all the fans of the series were so hungry for more HP that getting something this long had to be joyous, but folks, the editor checked out on this one.

My thoughts on this volume are as follows:

• Opening and Ending: This book has a ultra great opening and ending. Maybe the most exciting of all the works. REALLY good, gripping and well thought out. I started and thought – WOW! This is GREAT!!
• Middle: THEN – we get to Hogwarts – USUALLY where things come together (thought the cookie cutter fashioning of the school year is a bit wearing when reading them all in a row). Instead we get an interesting idea of the Ministry of Magic attempting to run Hogwarts and lots and lots and lots of day to day coverage. WAY more than needed. YES – there are some great parts but they are streatched so thin it is hard to appreciate them as much. This could have bee a really great concept. She just has run-away author syndrome. And because she had sold something insane like a 250 million books or something, they (aka the editors) let he write and write and write. Kinda suffering from Stephen King issues. Great story – iffy writing – NEEDING an editor!

I feel like she wrote the beginning and end and outlined the middle. She then sat down to write the middle and let it all fly! This book took twice as long as any other to read through.

The one thing I find a bit frustrating in the relationships between students and teachers (aka adults) is the sometimes lack of adult-ness from the adults. There are times you want the teachers to be “grown-ups”. Off advice, properly punish, and move on. Instead we get some petty arguments and thin egos. There are times this is very weird.

I have finished HP6 by now and the editors show back up – and thankfully really do a great job. This comes out as a film this summer and it will be interesting to see how they edit this mammoth volume down to a 2.5 hour film. It actually may benefit from it.

On a side note, THIS book I have in a slightly different edition than the other 5 (soon to be 6). This is the Reinforced Library edition. For those that do not know, this is a hardback that is typically bound with heavier boards for the front and back covers, a stronger “tape” for the spine and heaver paper along with stronger thread and glue in the spine. For such a long book I am very happy this volume was in this format. It is REALLY well made.

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.