Harry Potter

[cpt_morgan]

book 5 was pretty angsty, but the characters were 15 years old. of course they'd be over dramatic and teenager-ish. i really liked book 5 though. lots of information to soak up. i must say that this latest book is probabaly my favorite.  

[Ayamechan]

Yeah, I think they count as fantasy... not the best fantasy though. I think that what made them so big was not the quality of the writing... but rather, Rowling's idea of combining a fantasy setting with a middle school/high school setting. I mean, in other fantasy books, sure, you've got schools where wizards live... but it's ALWAYS one master with one to three apprentices. Rowling, in combining wizards and middle/high school, has succeeded in creating a fantasy situation... but one that her target audience can REALLY relate to.

And yes, I've read the 6th one. Went to the midnight release and everything. I thought I was pretty well prepared for it... but my boyfriend was less freaked out by the morons there than I was. o_O;  

[FaeDreamer]

Ok, now I've acually read the 6th book completely and I wanted to hurl it across the room. I haven't cried that hard over a book in a long time. I've been depressed all morning. *shrugs* I can't stop reading them now I'm too attached to all the characters. But I'm not really pleased where she's going with them. crying  

[Kolibris]

It's an okay series. I don't love it, but I don't hate it. I haven't gotten the sixth book yet, and I don't know when I'll get it. Eventually. It's not exactly on the top of my to-get list.  

[worthlesshadow]

I have finished reading the 6th one. it was awsume!!! kinda sad that dumbledore had to go through that.... neutral  

[cpt_morgan]

i liked book 6. It was full of random facts that, you know, JK will somehow weedle into the 7th book, but you sorta read over those facts...does that make sense? curses.... anyway, book 6, good. not my favorite, but good for moving the plot along...and that's just about it.
ninja  

[worthlesshadow]

wut I don't like about the harry potter books is that they sumtimes feel too short and that it needs to be longer... xp  

[cpt_morgan]

worthlesshadow

wut I don't like about the harry potter books is that they sumtimes feel too short and that it needs to be longer... xp

yeah i've found that at the end of many a HP book, i feel like i should have earned more information for the time spent reading it. but then agains that's the reason i keep buying them and reading them, so i can get all my questions answered. xp

ninja  

[Marlaina]

cpt... love the siggy... go furuba!!! (kay i'm done... that's just a really funny moment in the series)

i love harry potter 'cause JKR is a smart writer that can keep your attention which we haven't had on a younger level in a very long time... she'll put something in one book that you won't think about and then use it later and it just makes me giggle... plus her characters are awesome (Snape is still a good guy!!!!!!!!)

and yes it is fantasy because while there are witches and wizards we don't get to do anything near that cool  

[Nuala]

You join me late last month, discussing Half-Blood Prince with a friend at the other end of the country, via e-mail:

"Having now been able to get an impression of the book as a whole, it strikes me as rather different to the others in the series - having been primarily used as a vehicle to set up the next book, rather than as a story in its own right.

If only the pace that it managed for about that last hundred or hundred and fifty pages could've been kept up throughout.

And although I still stand by my comment that you may've been overanalysing when it came to the Mulholland Drive imagery, I see your point about Dumbledore overdoing the Yoda-isms. Even if ye olde internal struggle between good and evil is a common enough motif, that conversation with the young Voldemort was pure Phantom Menace - and Dumbledore'd been turned enough into the token exposition machine even before that.

And that first four fifths or so of the book seemed to be almost exclusively just that: exposition and set-up. You know I'm not one of those people who insists on action on every page, but there just seemed to be an awful lot of talking heads that weren't adding anything to the plot or even the suspense factor.

Although the gradual melding of Ron Weasley with Rupert Grint seems to've been vaguely tempered (at least it was revealed that the apparently slapstick, tension-derailing tangle with the brains in Phoenix left him with scars), there still seemed to be a very filmic quality to the whole thing, that was verging on screenplay rather than novel.

(And Hagrid's Mummerset accent seems to be getting worse and worse.)

When the plot finally did pick up, it seemed it was at a stage where it had to be unfolded wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am style, where there was no room for anything to have any real impact.

Having had the identity of the Half-Blood Prince dangled tantalisingly around for the rest of the novel, was I the only one who thought that sorting it out within about twenty pages and having the entire revelation compressed into one line left me with an overwhelming feeling of "Was that it?".

Given everything that's been stored up plot-wise for the last book, I can't help thinking that Rowling would've done as well using the space she wasted on speculation and adolescent drama on working through some of the plot, because the seventh book looks as though it could easily go to the opposite extreme.

I don't think I can really say anything more on the plot of the seventh book than we've discussed already, precisely because things seemed to be either telegraphed or stored up to be addressed in the next book.

Spoilers (typed in white - highlight to read) Harry's probably the final horcrux. Neville's probably going to have to kill him. Ron and Hermione will probably finally get their respective acts together.End spoilers

Reading the final novel's going to be like watching a James Bond film, I suppose: knowing what has to happen for the series to progress, but being curious about exactly how the trick is going to be pulled off this time."  

[Flux_o_color]

I started reading them about 6-7 days ago and I'm almost done with the 5th book, so needless to say, I really enjoy them!!

I always told myself I would never read them and now I'm happy I did mrgreen
The 5th book is a little whineny on Harry's part, but I supose I would be too if that whole (end of 4th book thing) happened to me. Anyways, I love em'....and I really love Ron and Hagrid heart  

[FaeDreamer]

Ok, I had to say something about the new movie, I know it's not the books but you have to be able to compare them. blaugh

I think this was the best version they've made into a movie yet, I'm a bit disturbed that they took out the major back-story for Barty Crouch Jr, since you have no idea what happened to him after he got caught being a death eater. I think they also played down the character development, like Fleur for example is really shallow you don't even get the feeling that she's a total annoying snob. I also think that Dumbledore was too harsh with Harry after his name was pulled, it doesn't strike me as him to be pushing Harry and then glaring menacingly down at him... stare

But on the positive side the visuals are great, the actors have certainly gotten MUCH better I really like the way this director did the movie. wink  

[Cassandra_the_Prophetess]

I find with the Harry Potter movies, along with most films adapted from books, that it is better to look at them as films in their own right, than repeats of the story. However I still inevitably ended up comparing the fourth movie to the book, and despite enjoying the film immensly, there were a few things i was looking forward to seeing on the big screen. For example: (in white just in case you haven't seen it yet) Winky the house elf, the Quiddich World Cup (they glossed over it a bit!) and the revelations at the end were left a bit incomplete. Oh and did anyone notice the hoods of the Death Eaters, when i saw them siluetted I thought it must have been the KKK, which they are very similar to, when you think about it.

Oh and also, i'm just re-reading the sixth book (due to a drought in my reading materials), i was hoping i would enjoy it more this time 'round, but i'm sorry to say, its just as lame as the last time *sigh*. There is absolutely no need for the excessive amount of pages spent on 'relationships'. The whole vague suggestiveness between Ron and Hermione has been going on for the last three books, and frankly, i'm sick of it, the situation never changes! (Or at least it takes a loooooong time to!) And I agree with Nuala, the books are being influenced by the movies and I think that is why they are losing their original charm. I also hate the fact that it's all so commercial! I know its cliched to say that, but its true, you can't go into a shop without seeing Harry Potter merchandise! Thats my rant over.  

[jaythenerdkid]

::Is obsessed with Harry Potter and proud of it::

I love them. JKR was the first fantasy author I really got into. I started when Goblet came out, and at first I wasn't going to touch them. Then a friend bugged me until I caved and read PoA (the only one available in the library at the time). It took me about half and hour to get to page 83, and I was hooked big-time.

My favourite character in the Trio is probably Hermione. I like the fact that she doesn't have to be pretty to get around and that she is so into reading (because I am too!). I'm not a big Ron fan, but that's just me.

I loved HBP. It was my favourite in the series, eclipsing even PoA. The relationship thing was a little annoying, but Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes was great and the Horcruxes were brilliant. The theories and discussion flying around after HBP have been great to take part in.

My least favourite was OotP, largely because of Capslock!Harry and Ignoring!Dumbledore. Umbridge was done very well, though, and the DA was great.  

[Empress_Kat]

I adore Harry Potter. It's not my favourite series by a long shot, but it's certainly the one I discuss the most.

The sixth book really dissappointed me. The writing was horrible, it read like a bad fanfic, and the teenage hormones were overwhelming and excessive. The end, with Dumbledore and the Horcruxes, was okay, but that's it. Except: Draco stepping on Harry's face. It's got to be my favourite literary moment ever.