Poor Voldemort. How many times do we have watch villains work so hard to get revenge upon their foes only to see them squander away all their work in a fit of hubris at the very last moment? He had Harry tied to a headstone in a graveyard thousands of miles from anyone that could help him. Have the death eaters gone soft? Can’t they think up a better way to kill a helpless fifteen year old boy than with the havarta curse? Whatever happened to a good old stabbing or drowning? That seems easy enough.
Maybe someone should have supplied Miss Rowling with a less predictable way to end her book…and the last hundred pages were the most entertaining section of the novel. I’d take predictability over sheer boredom any day.
It doesn’t appear to be getting any better. Harry Five has already put me to sleep twice, and I haven’t even gotten through the first three CDs. Didn’t Harry originally begin as a bedtime story? Well, at least she has accomplished that purpose. Getting through all seven books before the end of the summer is becoming less and less likely.
My theory is that by this point in her writing career, J.K. Rowling’s novels had become so popular that she felt that she could write whatever and however much she pleased and everyone would still read her books. Goblet of Fire was dreadfully slow. It’s almost as if she got lost in her own little world and gave up on moving the central plot forward. A hundred pages on blast-ended schrutes, a hundred pages in Hagrid’s shady genealogy, a hundred pages in house elves rights...and the list goes on.
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8 comments:
Seriously?! I had to go read your other HP reviews before commenting. You enjoyed "Chamber of Secrets" more than "Goblet"? I am shocked.
I liked "Goblet of Fire" a lot. There's massive amounts of material in the book, but I found it all entertaining. It does drag in a few places (trying to decipher the clue in the egg, for example), but I thought it was still exciting. I've read it at least 4 times...and I'll probably read it again.
You know, I have to say, in regards to HP, I liked the first one, because it was new. The second I didn't care for. The third one is my favorite, and as such, my LEAST favorite movie. I liked 4, because of the competition, and I read 5, 6, and 7 out of duty to the series, but didn't much care for them at all. Sure I went to a couple midnight buying parties, but only to keep my friends company. On the whole, the best thing to come out of Harry Potter is not the books themselves, (at least not for me) but that publishers finally figured out that YF books can be more than 200 pages and they CAN be dark. You can kill of people, and kids will still like it.
Now we are on the same page Jake.
I suppose you could blame my negative reaction on the burnout factor. You have to remember that I'm reading these all in close succession for the first time. Up to this point the books have gotten longer and longer without adding additional suspense.
I think I'll put off the second half of the series for now. Maybe that way I can recover the Rowling flood.
Um, so I am not in good company. I read Goblet of Fire in about a week. I loved the descriptions, I loved pretty much everything about this book. Long, yes. Worth it, yes.
Harry Potter totally took over my Summer of 2007.
Reading a book after you've already seen the movie always makes the novel seem longer. You already know everything that's going to happen. It deprives you of much of the suspense associated with reading.
Do you know when they are going to release Harry 6 in theaters? I'll have to get through it before then.
November 2008.
Eeek...I thought I had more time than that. Maybe I'll try and make another push to get through five before the summer is over.
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