OK. The whole world has read it already and I have finally laid my hands on Deathly Hollows (which is a story in itself), so I am going to live blog it. I have already finished 3 chapters on the train, so here goes:
This is the first Harry Potter book to have a quotations in front and both, one from Aeshylus and another from William Penn, are beautiful
Chapter One: Voldemort has always been the least skected figure in the book, known more for the teror he inspires in other people than for any of his own characteristics. Finally we see him thinking and in action and he is you friendly neghborhood fascist. Definitely not worthy of the coloring Rowling gave him in prior books. A minor character is killed already. Snape has a snitch in the Order!
Chapter Two: Backstory on Dumbledore introduced rather ingeniously by Rowling. Dumbledore's weaknesses explained. As a chracter makes more sense but at the price of losing his mysterious gloss. I liked the way Rowling is trying to get out of Potter's viewpoint and painting a broader picture of the wizard world here. I also like how she retains scepticism of the ordinary.
Chapter Three: Dudley is elevated to another level. We meet the delicious Diggle again. I can't ebelive how much Rolwing is pandering to the liberal establishment. " Anti-Voldemort movement," " belief in establishment"-- sic. So far, the novel reads as if it was good fan fiction Hasn't gotten any momentum at all.
Chapter Four: The Potter rescue by the Order. Is again ingenious and finally, the book is getting back into the groove. Gred and Forge rescue the novel but the finest line belongs to Fleur! There is a breath-taking chase and two more deaths, this time of characters we care about. Rowling is being merciless!
Chapter Five: OK Hagrid is alive! But someone else is dead! Somehow Rowling can't evoke much emotion at these deaths. She writes these really inane sentences for each character that died, " a consummate survivor," "the link to magical world." as if we don't know what they were. Irritating! And boy, Rowling is pandering to Amnesty kind of crowd big time. Harry won't kill anyone, even if they were attacking him, that's like Voldemort! What's with these superheros. earlier this year, Spiderman becamse all sentimentally cloying and now Harry Potter.
Chapter Six: The trio is preparing for ther adventure. There's more stuff about Horcruxes and I think it's all too pat how they found that out. Accio books?! Ron has developed a nice way of upstaging Harry where Hermione is concerned and it 's all very, Ron. This book is a return to older books where Ron, hermione and the rest of the gang were more picturesuq than Harry. To mae Harry gow, Rolwing kind of sidelined the other characters. Welcome to the gang!
Chapter Seven: A chapter with implications for later on probably. Harry has a nice moment wth Rufus and the thing about the snitch was clever.
Chapter Eight: The wedding. An unexpected guest arrives and he has one of the best lines of the series. There's more about Gridelvald. Oh, no not Grindelvald. This is reading more and more like fan fiction. More backstory from an entirely unimagined angle and have no idea where it is going. The chapter ends on a truly spectacular cliffhanger.
Chapter Nine: Uff, loads and loads of action. Hermione is slowly creeping back into my good books again. The backstory is again being placed wth a lot of coincidence and that's not good for the plot.
Chapter Ten: The first horcrux found. It's all what everyone guessed it would be. Pity, if RAB did not have more of a role than what was sketched here. Rowling panders more to the Brotherhood.
Chapter Eleven: I could have taken the pandering but this is getting too painful. In Kreacher's redemption Rowling lays bare the soul of white-guilt which people give the misnomer of liberalism. The Dumbledore backstory reads more and more like Desperate Housewives.
Chapter Twelve: This reconnaisance by Death Eaters and the counter-reconnaisance by the trio would have been interesting if the fight had any meaning. Rowling is so determined not to let her chracters kills or use force, other words, fight, the whole thing is getting less and less appealing. It reeks of post-modern torture-less warfare the Brotherhood has talked itself into. Goodbye to the concept of good war!along wth other things.
Chapter Thirteen: The trio try out something interesting and almost pull it off. They have got the first horcrux though. The whole Ministry set up has been so many times, it gave me a yawn.
Chapter Fourteen: Interesting chapter on the whole. The trio are coping up well though Hermione has not gottne out of her irritating habits. Harry is peeking into Voldy's mind again. I thought, he would know when Harry was doing that by now. Still, Rowling introduces yet another twist. Wherever this is going , I can't imagine. For the moment I can't think of anything else but Ravenclaw's wand.
Chapter Fifteen: More coincidence. And , Rowling is now channeling Lord of the Rings. The horcrux is making all of them rather tetchity and the trio has just split up. That was unexpected.
Chapter Sixteen: Finally Godric's Hollow makes an appearance. It is concerned wth the backstory but not the abckstory we were expecting. This is all getting very interesting though.
Chapter Seventeen: A highly charged chapter which reproduces the famous scene when Voldy first tried to kill Harry. It is quite simple. Interesting how Rowling made use of parts of this scene in an earlier novel.
Chapter Eighteen: Finally some balance from JKRowling. I had always thought Rowling was a good moralist and she does show some good moral judgement here. The backstory of Dumbledore and Grindelvald takes this book to another level and Harry has more complex feelings for his Headmaster, even after Dumbledore's death. So far, this angle had been the most unexpected surprise of the boook whereas the horcrux chase is turning out be a bit tepid.
Chapter Nineteen: A great chapter where they finally manage to destory the first horcrux. Something, even Dumbledore didn't manage well the first time. it was really very very good. Though, it raises many questions and I hope they will be answered. I would loath of more coincidence!
Chapter Twenty: The trio go to finda new character who is not much of a character. But the chapter ends on a most spine tingling cliffhanger possible! A moment to whistle for!
Chapter Twenty One: One of the most beautiful chapters in the entire series. Rowling nails it wth the fairy tale especially. Adding another layer of complexity for the already big hunt.
Chapter Twenty Two: Deathly Hallows are cool ! Potterwatch rocks! And oh, Rapier!
Chapter Twenty Three: A very scary chapter. I wonder if Rowling forgot if this book will be read by millions of children.
Chapter Twenty Four: I am simply speechless. Rowling is a genius of plotting. Nobody had even a tiniest inkling of what was coming.
Chapter Twenty-Five: Harry is a godfather! they are preparing for the second horcrux capture which as the UK cover suggested is going to happen in Gringotts.
The rest of the book: Well, I couldn't stop finishing the rest of the book. I couldn't interrupt myself for such things as writing a blog until I finished it. What can I say? It is beyond magnificent. She has reserved the best for the last. It took time to get going but once it did it was the BEST. I am too drained to say anything more and I will write a detailed review later until the magic has soaked in me.
This saturday when Harry Potter saga finally comes to a close, I planned that I would live blog the book. I have always read the book on the first day itself; this time my plan was to blog it at the same time. That looks more and more hopeless. I have to wrork this weekend. Forget blogging, I won't even read the book unitl the whole world has already completed it.
Nothing short of divine intervention will avert my bleak fate!
Did you know that a fan wrote an entire novel of Harry Potter and posted it online? Yup. An entire book seven. With the same number of pages Book 7 is supposed to have and the novel ending with "scar." Years ago, Rowling said that's the word the novel was going to end with. One must really applaued the patience of that guy.
Initially, many thought that the book was leaked to the internet. It had fooled that many people. How can we say it's not the original novel> WEll, here's the first paragraph:
Harry slowly raised his head and stared morosely at the familiar visage of number four, Privet Drive. What had already been a horrible day was rapidly getting worse. Not only did he have to appear unannounced on the Dursleys’ doorstep (something he knew they’d have no problem expressing their displeasure over), but he’d also have to tell them that two other freaks would be joining him this afternoon. The corner of Harry’s mouth twitched humorlessly as he envisioned how they’d take the news.
Freaks? Familiar visage? And where are the infamous adverbs? Does it read like it's written by J.K.Rowling? Not even close.
It also devotes more time to Harry-Ginny love saga. Sorry mate, to crush your romantic hopes. Book 7 is going to have very little lovey dovey stuff which Rowling crammed into book 6 because she won't have enough time in the last book from horcrux hunting, Snape and Voldemort killing. By the way, it also subscribes to the Harry is the last horcrux theory. We thought Dumbledore had already laid out what the horcruxes were in book 6. true, they were just suppositions but if Rolwing takes that angle and introduces different horcruxes that will make the book 6 even more redundant than it is now. That's why she cleverly did not let out the identity of one horcrux which I believe belongs to Ravenclaw.
AS if this 659 page tome was not enough, there appears to be another novel doing rounds which has little over 200 pages posted on the internet. Apparently, that's the real deal and they form the first few chapters of Book 7. I haven't hunted down that one yet but I'm sceptical.
Anyway, this novel suggest the depths we Harry potter fans will sink to and with the book 7 closing the saga completely, I am sure this is what many of us fans will be doing over the rest of our lives. Writing and reading fan fiction. Over and over again.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.That's the title of the new book. Deathly Hallows? Must say it was unexpected. Both the announcement and the title itself. I did not like it at first but it is growing on me.
As usul, the web is swirling with theories what it could mean. Firstly, this could tie in to the legendary four treasures that Tuaatha Danaan brought to Celtic lands. These could tie in to the relics of founders of Hogwarts that Voldemart is trying into making horcruxes.
Or else, it could refer to Hallowe'en or All Hallow's Eve, when the veil between this world and the spiritual world is supposed to be at tis thinnest and the spirits can pass over.
Or else, it could refer to a place, the illusive graveyard of Hogwarts that's everyone is been waiting for to manifest.
Other theories include, that they are a ritual, an army of dead spirits or the name of a strange magic that Harry has already encountered or will encounter.
What they are only Rowling knows at this point.
However, I do not think she will be able to or will answer all the questions we've had about the series or will tie all the loose ends. If she does try doing that, she will lose a lot of momentum. Already we've had two big tomes which have nothing much happening in them. Ideally, Rowling should return to the first three books and try and write a genuine page turner and leave the unexplained stuff to her website or a non-fiction book on Harry Potter. Just my suggestions.
But, whatever happens this book is an end of an ear. After this, there'll be no more of standing in the queues, no more month's of chatting with strangers about theories. After you've read it the first time and it's over, it'll be the end of anticipation. Period.
The biggest flaw in The Half-Blood Prince is that Lord Voldemort doesn't even make an appearance once. Obviously, Rowling has to stagger the confrontation between Harry Potter and Voldemort over three novels and postpone it till the last novel but to totally blank out the villain like that is a real loophole. Many people found the book perfunctory and unsatisfying. When i first read it, I din't like it that much and this is one book that hasn't improved on me even after three readings. The problem is that this novel does not advance the plot in anyway except give us necessary but background information and prepare the way for the climactic showdown in the last book. Dumbledore is killed because well, the hero has to be finally do the thing on his own.
I cannot detail the plot line here because there is none. Harry is in her sixth year and he is having private lessons with Dumbledore where the professor is filling him with as much of Voldemort as he knows. Harry is supicious that his long time rival at Hogwarts, Draco Malfoy is on to something dangerous but his friends are not interested. Finally, Harry has found an old potions book belonging to one Half-Blood Prince which makes Harry suddenly the best student in Hogwarts.
Now, this last plot line is definitely reminiscent of Ginny Weasley's diary in Chamber of Secrets and Rowling has said that much of the plot in this book should have been originally used in book two. And it does seem a bit late for Harry to have a book to confide in at this stage in his life. Not to mention the fact that the stuff the book teaches him is pretty lame. Even when we find who half-blood prince really is, it just means that someone has had a certain nickname at certain point of life.
Most of the book is filled with the dullest romances I've read and quidditch is not half as interesting as before. But, the biggest disappointment is that the most characters are shrill, humourless and distracted and that includes Ron, Ginny and Hermione. This last deserves to be expunged from the pages as she has become the dullest marm in literature. All in all, a disappointment.
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