July 18, 2005

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Of course I waited in a book store until midnight on Friday to pick it up. Of course I've finished the book before the weekend was out. I'm a Potter geek through and through. I love the books. No, I did not dress up as Voldemort or a Death Eater. No I didn't even wear an 'I am Voldemort' T-shirt like some of the geeks that showed up. If you're not a Harry Potter fan, you may not know what you're missing. They are some well-written and engrossing tales. Go ahead, try one. What could it hurt?
This book isn't the best one of the series. In fact, I felt that there were too many marginal characters involved in the story, and the author could have explained a few things about some of what was going on. Even though I'd read the first 5 books in the series, I don't remember exactly why everyone is mad at Percy or who Fleur is. A short paragraph would have helped, although it may not have been following the style of the series. Two years is a long time to wait and expect us to remember the previous book. No, I didn't go back and read #5 before hitting the bookstore.
The thing that has made the last few books interesting though is the British author's penchant for killing off major characters in the story. Although this particular kill-off I felt was transparent. There was way too much fore-shadowing from the middle of the story (but I won't ruin it for you).

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