The Half-Blood Prince

1. jackson July 19, 2005

   Finished it! I thought it was very much the penultimate book in the series — Lots of exposition getting us ready for the last book. I liked it, but will refrain from further comment for the moment.
2. Trish July 21, 2005

   Yup, finished it in one day, but didn’t want to stop reading. I agree, very…interesting is a good word. I’m concerned that she’s saving too much for the last book though – I don’t see how, with everything she set up, it could be finished satisfactorily in less than 1,000 pages.

   I guessed who died. I did not, however, guess who the Half-Blood Prince was. That was very well hidden.
3. Samantha July 23, 2005

   I read it overnight, too. She’s a genius at the chapter ending cliffhanger that pulls you straight into the next one. If I ever try the novel thing, I’ll have to remember that.

   She handled the huge amounts of exposition surprisingly well, too. Her conceit of making it memory exploration with Dumbledore really kept it interesting.

   As for where it’s going, she’s left herself set up very well for an ending/coming of age finishing novel. It’s fitting that he faces the final conflict without his parent-figures, since he’ll officially be adult next book.

   Which was the direction you didn’t expect? Or the thing you expected that didn’t happen?

   -S
4. Tim July 24, 2005

   After reading HBP I must say that the series is, for sure, no longer a childrens book series. Actually it hasn’t been since book 2!
   I cried through the last three chapters of HBP and then felt stupid about crying over a fictional character’s death. But I have come to regard the characters in Rowling’s fantasy world as family! (OK I gotta get a life) but I was more devastated over the conclusion of HBP than I have been over a fictional death in any other novel I’ve read in my entire life (I’m 56)
   I guess it had to have happened (I won’t reveal exactly what) but for Harry (alone) to defeat the evil Voltmort, which has always been his destiny, and of course he will defeat him in the last book, the events in book 6 had to have taken place exactly as Rowling wrote them. Harry will rise to the occasion and become the greatest living wizard ever known and he will destroy Voltmort and the death eaters. He will also create a new realm in which Rowling can continue to write about the fantasy world of witches and wizards in 20th century England beyond Harry’s last year at Hogwarts (If there is a 7th year).
   I also found it interesting that she chose to metamorph the conditions in her fantasy world with the conditions in July 2005 London. (or Prophesied them) A London so filled with paranoia over the 56 deaths in the tubes that they are oblivious to and accepting of the cold blooded murder of an innocent man because of police suspicion of terrorist involvement. Frankly I fear the ministry of magic more than Voltmort! And so should you!

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