Comments | blueminder: harry potter and the half-blood prince

blueminder

harry potter and the half-blood prince

Jul 27, 2005 03:11

Finally, my opinion on the book.
Kept in an LJ-cut for spoilers about. You have been warned.
( Here be Dragons, Yar. )

books

Comments 11

doctorkong July 27 2005, 01:37:00 UTC

yea, everyone thinks R.A.B is Regulus

rumblpak July 27 2005, 05:05:57 UTC

I thought it to be a little stronger than Chamber of Secrets, but is far from the best Harry Potter book out. Prisoner of Azkaban is still my favorite with Order of the Phoenix as a very close second.

i feel pretty much the same way, but i really dont know which i like better this one or the chamber of secrets. the big problem with this book was the same problem with the 3rd star wars movie, tons of action, but when they sat down to get some plot in, it just looked like it got removed to make room for more action scenes. not that i really have a problem with that, but what i generally like about the harry potter series is getting to know what the characters are thinking and at the same time feeling how i would react, but i just dont get that in this book, had i tried all i would feel is ow...but none the less its still a great book.

blueminder July 27 2005, 12:15:04 UTC

Actually, as far as important plot points, this book has tons, mostly dictated from the mouth of Dumbledore unfortunately. It was really interesting to look at Voldemort's past and such, but I actually had to say there was far less action in this book and it acted in the matter of finding the easiest way to place the current plot in an opportune position for a good conclusion.

In my opinion, Order of the Phoenix was the best in this respect. Tons of action, tons of plot, a thrilling battle in the Ministry of Magic and lots of character development (even though I REALLY hated Harry at the end of the book for how bitchy he was).

watashi July 27 2005, 14:57:29 UTC

Yeah, I didn't feel there was much action in this book at all. I described it to someone as 650 pages of exposition for the next book. I felt there was way too much she left out that should have been delved into further and way too much she put in that could have been left out. I was also upset about having no mention of the curtain and the voices and Sirius' death. It seemed so important at the end of the last book that to have no mention of it in this one just seemed like a glaring omission. I also didn't feel like this was JKR's best writing. I'm not sure if it was the pregnancy or the fact that she has already started writing other things (she said she was working on a mystery novel while she wrote this...at least I think it was mystery) and her heart just isn't really in Harry's world any more. I really hope she pulls it together better for the last book. Nothing worse than having a good series ruined by a bad last book.

rumblpak July 27 2005, 17:36:14 UTC

i disagree, what i thought was that there was action, but you didnt realize it was action until you read for 10 more pages so you could figure out what exactly was going on. and even through all the history, there was action in that, so i dont get where you say there was so little action. this one had as much, if not more action than order of the phoenix, and it was what 400? less pages.

Thread 5

nytehauq July 27 2005, 22:27:29 UTC

You know what it felt like? It felt like alot was going on, but it was a bit hollow as if ( ... )

blueminder July 28 2005, 01:26:47 UTC

Even in OoTP, when Sirius died, there was an almost surreal air about it.
Being that he fell into the gate between living and dead, the entire situation was very surreal in the first place. Given the importance in the last book and speculation given on Sirius's behalf, it didn't look like something easily dismissed as it did in Book 6. Just my opinion.

I agree about pressure by the publishers and movie studio to make the books shorter, one of the worst things that can be done for them.

orca_ July 28 2005, 03:25:01 UTC

Harry & Ginny
I can just see Rowling and the writers from Spider-man having a pleasant cup of tea and pastries on a nice Sunday afternoon whilst contemplating how the book should end.
Totally agree.

As for theories, this fleshes out many of the popular ones, including R.A.B. = Regulus and Snape = spy, only they are much more well-explained and show the consistency they bear with the books. Allow me to focus on the latter: It would seem that Snape is very clever - a spy against Voldemort, pretending to be a spy for Voldemort. If you read Goblet of Fire again, you'll notice near the end that Dumbledore wants Snape to do something he doesn't want known, after Harry wakes up. Notice that in the sixth book, Snape says he returned to Voldemort a few hours after the rebirth. It's hard to find these three facts coincidental ( ... )

blueminder July 28 2005, 10:28:42 UTC

I actually think Snape being a spy was obvious in Order of the Phoenix in all truth. Also, the scene when Snape and Dumbledore are arguing in the forest places alot of speculation on what was actually discussed, perhaps Dumbledore wanted Snape to kill him if he needed to.

orca_ July 29 2005, 16:52:24 UTC

Yeah, I've been rereading Order of the Phoenix and I agree, it seems obvious. But I've begun to wonder: which side was he really on? He's obviously a spy for one side, pretending to be a spy for the other. But which side was he really working for? All we know is that he was a spy for Dumbledore, and he was a spy of Voldemort. Obviously, those are mutually exclusive, so he must have one of the two fooled, and frankly, none of the books make it clear which side he's really on.