Harry Potter
All right. I have finished the new Harry Potter book.
If you don't want it spoiled for you, tune out right now. I am going to lay down my thoughts.
First of all, I was right. She could not bring herself to kill Harry. In fact, she went out of her way to not scar him any more than a bit of emotional damage. He did not have to sacrifice jack and or shit to get rid of Voldemort. He just had to accept the fact that death was inevitable. *snores as she falls asleep*
Now did anyone else count the ways she basically said in some weird obfuscated way that.... yes, Voldemort was dead but the danger wasn't over? Oh yes... the world was safe for at least 19 years so we could have a new generation deal with the problems. Plus there was so many odds and ends of Voldemort still out there in the world for any sort of villian to pick up where he left off. Final dealing with him my ass.
And three.......
Don't give us 19 years later unless you are going to tie up every odd and end... don't name children you never intend to write anything about AND don't give us more questions about what happend to this that and whomever. Either give us the list, or leave us looking at everyone after the last battle saying, "All right. ... lived lived died.. lived... " and give us the moral...
And above all.. two words that should grace the end of any set of novels in which the author is done with....
THE END.
Now.... for those of you who are staring at me, scratching your head. My other problems with the book include her style of giving us descriptions of people, talking about them for two pages and then giving us their name. My memory and caring about the books does not extend to reconizing people from a brief cursory description. Go figure I am not a rabid fan.
I will give her credit though. I am very glad that we did in fact recieve an explaination about Snape. I like the fact that he has the issues of being a decent person versus wanting to be powerful and have people fear him. I really do like the fact that entire reason why he wasn't super evil was that he loved and wanted to protect someone he had loved for a very long time... and the super evil villian wouldn't give it to him. No matter how the villian rationalized the relationship. I really do like the way he was constructed. The true reason why he gives a flying snot about Harry.
Overall... let's see...
The books are entertaining. However, you can sum them up as... Everything is Magic. They are very focused on giving children a magical world in which anything their minds can think of can exist. It is very classic children's fantasy. And I mean like 9-12 year old range of fantasy. There is no complicated plot lines. It's all very much rooted into the positive energies that if you are good and noble, you will win out. But... as an adult sci-fi/fantasy reader, there really isn't anything in the books we haven't seen before. The magic system is very basic, and a nightmare in trying to show the downsides of it. There is no downside. Everything is Magic in a very Disney sort of way.
I would have to give the books a B- to a C+ rating. I believe they are great for kids, but for an adult, I think there's a bit too much catering to the child mind for them to be really a work that I would stick up in the shelves next to Tolkien and Jordan and other authors who actually do a ton more effort and work into their universes. (And I don't even like tolkien or jordan that much... and I will still give them higher ratings. Their universes are vibrant and have many nooks and crannies that cannot just be explained because magic is so. Oh yes, put Goodkind in the list of awesome. Talk about a series in which magic has consequences.)
In wrap up..
Harry Potter... good for quick easy reasing.
Good for your kids.
Put it on a higher pedastal than some of classic fantasy books and yer a moron.
If you don't want it spoiled for you, tune out right now. I am going to lay down my thoughts.
First of all, I was right. She could not bring herself to kill Harry. In fact, she went out of her way to not scar him any more than a bit of emotional damage. He did not have to sacrifice jack and or shit to get rid of Voldemort. He just had to accept the fact that death was inevitable. *snores as she falls asleep*
Now did anyone else count the ways she basically said in some weird obfuscated way that.... yes, Voldemort was dead but the danger wasn't over? Oh yes... the world was safe for at least 19 years so we could have a new generation deal with the problems. Plus there was so many odds and ends of Voldemort still out there in the world for any sort of villian to pick up where he left off. Final dealing with him my ass.
And three.......
Don't give us 19 years later unless you are going to tie up every odd and end... don't name children you never intend to write anything about AND don't give us more questions about what happend to this that and whomever. Either give us the list, or leave us looking at everyone after the last battle saying, "All right. ... lived lived died.. lived... " and give us the moral...
And above all.. two words that should grace the end of any set of novels in which the author is done with....
THE END.
Now.... for those of you who are staring at me, scratching your head. My other problems with the book include her style of giving us descriptions of people, talking about them for two pages and then giving us their name. My memory and caring about the books does not extend to reconizing people from a brief cursory description. Go figure I am not a rabid fan.
I will give her credit though. I am very glad that we did in fact recieve an explaination about Snape. I like the fact that he has the issues of being a decent person versus wanting to be powerful and have people fear him. I really do like the fact that entire reason why he wasn't super evil was that he loved and wanted to protect someone he had loved for a very long time... and the super evil villian wouldn't give it to him. No matter how the villian rationalized the relationship. I really do like the way he was constructed. The true reason why he gives a flying snot about Harry.
Overall... let's see...
The books are entertaining. However, you can sum them up as... Everything is Magic. They are very focused on giving children a magical world in which anything their minds can think of can exist. It is very classic children's fantasy. And I mean like 9-12 year old range of fantasy. There is no complicated plot lines. It's all very much rooted into the positive energies that if you are good and noble, you will win out. But... as an adult sci-fi/fantasy reader, there really isn't anything in the books we haven't seen before. The magic system is very basic, and a nightmare in trying to show the downsides of it. There is no downside. Everything is Magic in a very Disney sort of way.
I would have to give the books a B- to a C+ rating. I believe they are great for kids, but for an adult, I think there's a bit too much catering to the child mind for them to be really a work that I would stick up in the shelves next to Tolkien and Jordan and other authors who actually do a ton more effort and work into their universes. (And I don't even like tolkien or jordan that much... and I will still give them higher ratings. Their universes are vibrant and have many nooks and crannies that cannot just be explained because magic is so. Oh yes, put Goodkind in the list of awesome. Talk about a series in which magic has consequences.)
In wrap up..
Harry Potter... good for quick easy reasing.
Good for your kids.
Put it on a higher pedastal than some of classic fantasy books and yer a moron.