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Woohoo! I'd say 'best Rowling book yet' but I'm not sure if that's a great compliment. I think a lot of the greatness comes from the fact that, depending on your perspective, she either doesn't write a book where the characters are effectively kicking their heels for a year, or she's finally got the hang of disguising that the characters are kicking their heels for a year. Although I liked OotP some, I was aggravated by the way it opened with a shower of problems and issues that weren't even brought up in the lengthy ending to book four: Ministry resistance, Dumbledore not wanting to hang around with Harry which, while valid storylines, seemed dropped in because Rowling needed to delay things a year. By having Dumbledore/Harry lessons that either means stuff is progressing or, if you want to be cynical, Rowling has worked out how to disguise the fact things aren't progressing still.
Dumbledore's funeral = strangely moving.
But what I found odd was that the Order of the Phoenix seem to have shut down. In the last book, we continually heard in dispatches of Dumbledore sending people on little quests, Hagrid to the Giants for example. Although he's clearly not telling Harry everything, this year they didn't seem to be doing anything, as though they were waiting for the inevitable.
Did we know Snape was a mudblood? My copy of OotP is at the bottom of a big pile of books, but did Sirius and James tease Snape about his non-pure origins? Because if it's never been revealed before then that's what's known as a cheat, where we can't come to the right decision because we're not given the facts.
On the issue of whether Snape is good or evil, what reason has he to be good? The first time Voldemort popped his clogs, a lot of Death Eaters claimed to be under the influence, but from all we've seen and heard in the books, there is no reason why Snape shouldn't have replaced a teenage lust/hatred for James and Sirius with more reasonable lust for power so no man or woman will ever turn him down again. And Dumbledore is not always right. Isn't that the point of the end of 'OotP'?
What is odd is the moment when Snape kills Dumbledore. I'm not sure if that's deliberate on Rowling's part or her getting caried away again.
For the first time, Dumbledore was pleading.
Now, I think that was Rowling trying to sell us on the seriousness of the moment. If Snape really is Dumbledore's man then I expect it will be tried to argue that this was all Dumbledore acting to sell the assembled Death Eaters that Snape really is one of them.
Chapter Two is the best thing that Rowling has ever written.
Tonks/Lupin. Where did this come from? It reads a bit to me how in the Buffyverse, Willow and Tara got back together just in time for Tara to be shot, or Giles and the teacher he fancied, just in time for Angelus to snap her neck, or Wesley and Fred... One of them is going to be wearing a red top next book and talking about how 'when the wars over, I'm getting married...'
Anyone remember 'Dark Skies', trying to cash in on the 'X-Files' conspiracy telly market in the mid 90s? It didn't work because, at the end of the pilot episode, our heroes leave the big secret organisation to go and fight the alien conspiracy on their own with no resources. It was just daft. Although Harry has Sirius's place, a pile of cash and a load of friends and the remains of the Order, I'm not sure they have the chops to find either the latest MacGuffin (although in my experience wizards in stories tended to hide their enchanted shinbones in trees, so they should perhaps chop down the old forest) or prepare to confront Voldemort. Unless the portrait of Dumbledore is able to advise them, I don't see Harry as being bright enough to know what has to be done. I did chuckle when Snape killed Dumbledore, after all Harry has spent five and a half years irrationally convinced Snape is evil, he's proved right AT LAST!
Goodness Gracious Meme As pointed out above, she's finally done the slightest bit of character stuff with Malfoy, Voldemort, Dumbledore etc.
Thank God she finally found a use for Malfoy, as I was sick and tired of the character previously. But in many ways the most important characters in this book, Malfoy, Voldemort/Riddle and Snape, are all important by the vast sections of the book when they are absent. It's good to see that Rowling is still keeping her prejudices alive, if you've got bad parents then they will pass on the bad gene to you and you'll be evil and may well have bad skin too. All the other houses choose people on their inner attributes, Slytherin seem to choose people based on their poor skin hygiene (although they're probably spotty because of the oil that's exuded from their dark hearts).
While the first chapter was overlong and self-satisfied, did people really have no fun looking out for the parellels between the magical world and our War on Terror? The leaflets telling people what to do in case of a Death Eater attack, priceless!
fuckbaked Harry needs to start jacking off, at the very least, and Luna needs to be queer. Or at least, someone needs to be queer.
Aaaah, so this is why I don't read slash. I really, rilly don't want to think of Harry's face, contorted in the throes of... ugh god. I'm glad that there isn't anyone noticeably queer in the Rowlingverse, what with the sterling work she's done in the name of tokenism in the books with Cho Chang and the bloody Patil twins (who I'm sure would make wonderful shop girls at Fred and George's Hogsmead branch of their joke shop), best to leave aside that whole area.
Luna reminds me of myself, so I think it would be really cool if she were queer.
TMI. Still, why not write a Mary-Sue where you visit Hogwarts and sex her up?
Benjamin: Richardson Acolyte D clearly wanted Snape to kill him as he's the ONLY chance the OotP has to get a handle on the missing horcruxes.
Then I feel I must quote that known bastion of wisdom, Colonel Jack O'Neill.
Jack: Does anyone have a plan?
Anonymous Tok'ra Bloke: We die.
Jack: Okay, does anyone have a good plan?
Harry might be The Boy Who Lived and The One Who Might Kill Voldemort but he's also the Boy Without an Ounce of Common Sense and The One Who Has no Resources. Dumbledore found Macguffin-finding extremely difficult, he's a lot smarter than Harry, so unless Harry's going to be drawn to them thanks to his psychic link to Voldemort... ooooh for fuck's sake, surely not?
Keith you're breaking my heart It's just not Rowling's way of writing or developing characters.
She developes characters? Sorry, cheap shot. |
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