Harry Potter Book 7
Although Bunky did not pay the extra $8 for special shipping, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows showed up in the mailroom Saturday afternoon, in a special box (there were two waiting here). Bunky had to take over my computer for much of the weekend, so I ended up finishing the book Sunday night. There’s more after the cut, and I’ve activated the spoiler tags. With that said, if you have not finished reading the book yet, do not read further, since the comments are sure to be chock full of spoilers.
Also, I added this picture from the Goblet of Fire premiere, just because it is hilarious.
Overall, I thought the book was good, with the beginning and end being the strongest parts. The one flaw that I felt the book suffered from was the need to complicate the events that lead to Voldemort’s downfall. While some of the elements had been hidden in the previous books, a few plot twists popped up too late in the game and so felt a tad heavy-handed. The other problem I had while reading was not so much a problem with the book itself, but with the fact that Rowlings had hinted so much in her various interviews. I understand her need to feed her fans little tidbits of information, but unfortunately it did interfere a bit with my enjoyment of the book. I cannot imagine how hard it must have been to be an editor working on Book 7, what with the secrecy of the project and the pre-knowledge of the book’s ending.
The Good
- Severus Snape: He was the man. The inclusion of the pensieve and Occlumency in the earlier books was brilliant. This was such a fantastic method of telling the past, and it all fit very well into the story. The flashbacks would never have had the same impact if Snape had simply snarled the information to Harry. I was touched in the flashback when he told Dumbledore that after all this time, his Patronus was still a doe. The part where he wants to stare into Harry’s green eyes at the end was nice. It was also meaningful that Snape was a Slytherin, as the majority of them ended up being scumbags. Snape was hands down the richest, and most enjoyable character in the series, and one that Rowling can be proud of.
- Albus Dumbledore: The revelation of his imperfection and his remorse made Dumbledore so much better. While I had some problems with the fact that he didn’t think to use the Elder Wand to de-curse the Resurrection Stone, everywhere else he was just the right mix of brilliance and luck. The cooperation on Dumbledore’s death was especially slick.
- No one dead came back to life: With the psuedo-exception of Harry himself, everyone else stayed dead. I thought that either Sirius or Moody would spring forth, since their deaths were a little ambigious, but they remained hidden. Props for the Jedi ghost scene at the end.
- Hermione: She was my favorite character in the series, and she kicked her performance up a notch. She was a steady friend, and her performance in clutch situations was exponentially better than her performance in similar past situations. Even Hermione’s one mistake that led to Harry’s wand being snapped was actually a blessing in disguise.
- Harry’s emo: It didn’t run out of control this time, thank goodness. He didn’t sink into hopelessness or lash out needlessly. Harry was very mature this time, and easy to root for; at the same time he wasn’t unrealistic.
- The Invisibility Cloak: That thing owned, even though it was the least regarded of the three Hallows. Vanish is overpowered.
- House Elves: Dobby was sweet, and Kreacher got to power up almost as much as Mrs. Weasley.
The Bad
- Wand Swapping: Of all the plot devices, I thought this was the poorest. There was not much leadup in the previous books, and I felt like there were plot holes opening up all around me towards the end. The rules on mastery seemed a bit wishy-washy, and while we did get “the wand chooses its master” before, it is odd for the wand to be able to switch allegiances like that.
- Bellatrix Lestrange: Her constant desire to get all up on Voldemort was uncomfortable.
- James Potter: I knew it! He was just a jerk! I hated James ever since they showed what he was like as a teen, and even in the 7th book there was no definitive examples of him doing anything but being a jerk to others and nice to his little circle of family and friends. James Potter sucked, and it must have seriously killed Snape when he thought about how Lily had decided to marry James. With this in mind, can you really blame Snape for being so mean to Harry?
- Elder Wand: Wow, this wand totally sucked. It didn’t end up working for anyone. It backfired on Voldemort and killed him. It’s out of warranty for sure by now. The only extraordinary thing the Elder Wand did was fix Harry’s original wand. At the end, no one wanted the Elder Wand because it was such a lame item.
- Sword of Gryffindor: I must have missed how Neville ended up with it. I thought that Griphook took/owned it. It seems odd that you can just pull the sword out of the Sorting Hat, when someone else is in possession of the sword.
- Albus Severus Potter: Why did Harry name one son James Potter II and yet the headmasters had to share the last one?
- Fred Weasley: To bad he died, and then Ron didn’t name his son Fred. I mean, who the heck is Hugo? Hugo Weaving?
- The Bloody Baron: Er, there are better ways to handle rejection than stabbing the woman you love.
- Deathly Hallows: Not nearly as cool as advertised. Bringing them together didn’t really do anything, so it’s hard to really praise Harry for agreeing to part with the wand and the stone.
- Camping in the woods: This part of the book was so depressing, and I longed for Hogwarts almost as much as Harry did. Even when you are a wizard, camping is not fun.
The Ugly
- Remus Lupin: It’s like Harry’s emo jumped into Lupin for this book. What the heck happened to him?! I felt so bad for Tonks, and then the two of them died in a flash with no real explanation. I felt this was pretty senseless, and served no point other than making Harry feel really bad on his own death march. At least Snape got to outlive his enemies from his teenage years.
- Peter Pettigrew: I thought he would help Harry, but it turns out a lapse in judgement made him off himself.
- Molly Weasley: Bellatrix can hold off 3 wizards at a time no problem, but Mrs. Weasley’s charge into battle allows her to take down the Death Eater? This was so unrealistic, especially the part where Mrs. Weasley calls Bellatrix a bitch. The whole time I thought Mrs. Weasley was just knitting sweaters, but really she was busy leveling her character up and watching too many cheesy action flicks.
- Voldemort: Get some +spell hit, n00b.
Finally, the deaths didn’t really affect me that much in this book. It wasn’t at all shocking like when Snape killed Dumbledore. I wonder if the joke shop will continue, and it was too bad for Teddy that he lost his parents, but it wasn’t such a huge gut-punch to me. And while Snape was such a great character, his death seemed inevitable. Seriously, Dobby was the saddest loss out of all of them. I think I’ll want to reread the book again, since I felt I missed a few parts (e.g. what happened to Crookshanks?). When I reading the book, I wasn’t feeling that great about some of the plot twists, but as I thought about it later that night, a lot more made sense. Perhaps it’s just a matter of letting things stew for a bit.
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By Kungfucius, 07/23/2007 @ 10:57 am
Use ROT13 to view my comments so no one will be spoiled
V jnf nsenvq gung WX zvtug unir qht urefrys n ubyr ng nebhaq gur zvqqyr bs gur obbx fvapr gurer jnf fb zhpu gb erfbyir, ohg fur znantrq gb qb fb ol gur raq, nygubhtu lbh qvq cbvag bhg gung vg jnf cerggl urnil-unaqrq. Vg jnf fnq gb frr Urqjvt tb fb rneyl va gur obbx, ohg Urqjvt jbhyq cebonoyl unir tbggra va gur jnl zber bsgra guna abg nf Uneel naq Urezvbar jrer pnzcvat sebz cynpr gb cynpr, naq gurl yvxryl jbhyqa’g unir unq Urqjvt qryvire nal yrggref.
V jnf fbeg bs fhecevfrq gung gurer jnf ab zragvba bs Yhan naq Fvevhf va gur rcvybthr. Yhan unf fbeg bs orpbzr bar bs gur Uneel Cbggre “tebhcvr” zrzoref nf gur frevrf cebterffrq, naq Fvevhf jnf gur pybfrfg crefba ur unq gb n sngure (orfvqrf znlor Qhzoyrqber).
Lbh unq gb svther gung Zbyyl Jrnfyrl jnf chyyvat na Vpuvtb ol gur raq bs gur obbx :C
Birenyy, n tbbq obbx gb svavfu n tbbq frevrf
▼ Show
By Velius, 07/23/2007 @ 11:33 am
If anything, wouldn’t Voldemort need less spell hit?
By Ender, 07/23/2007 @ 11:38 am
If the Elder Wand is so awesome, how did Dumbledore defeat its previous owner in a straight-up duel? Wasn’t that wand supposed to be unbeatable?
By Felina, 07/23/2007 @ 12:04 pm
I wasn’t all that interested in reading this last book (was really unhappy with the previous book) but found it impossible to resist reading your review and the comments. =D
Surprisingly, it’s only piqued my interest. Now I have to go brave the masses and find the darn thing. Thanks
By Kabitzin, 07/23/2007 @ 12:20 pm
Haha, but I guess you have a point about what happened when he did hit Harry.
The wand is working as intended.
It’s important to have closure! The ending is pretty good, and the beginning is thrilling. Camping in the middle is… well, I guess it’s necessary. I can’t believe you were going to boycott book 7, but your will is weak!
By Kabitzin, 07/23/2007 @ 12:29 pm
Arg it slipped my mind at the time, but I wanted to add one more to the Ugly list:
It also reminds me of this amazing youtube video that Kungfucius sent me.
By Chris, 07/23/2007 @ 12:57 pm
Enough with the spoiler warnings. Let’s talk turkey:
Negima dies!
By Kungfucius, 07/23/2007 @ 1:01 pm
@ Ender: I think the Elder Wand protects the user from death, but if Dumbledore goes into the dual with the mindset that he’ll win the dual without killing the other dualist, the wand’s powers aren’t as pronounced.
By Velius, 07/23/2007 @ 1:01 pm
I was also curious as all curses can be dodged since it’s described that they don’t move all that fast. So if you trained yourself as a ninja and had those super agile moves and acute senses, you could dodge anything right? Would that make you invincible to wizards?
By Velius, 07/23/2007 @ 1:04 pm
Yeah, found this little tidbit from wikipedia:
“The current consensus among fans seems to be that, since the Elder Wand was sought as a means to defeat death, an opponent who is purposely seeking not to kill the wand’s master could defeat him, and thus take possession of the wand. This is inferred by the fact that Dumbledore was able to defeat Grindelwald without killing him, and why Draco Malfoy, who did not have the nerve to kill Dumbledore, was able to defeat him using Expelliarmus”
By Catnipped, 07/23/2007 @ 1:19 pm
I basically agree with everything you said, except I thought the middle part was the best. I truly enjoyed their various close calls with Nagini, and Snatchers and various other camping hazards (ahh it brought back those horrible camping memories). I especially thought the break into ministry and the Gringotts was really intense. I thought the curse of the 20 multiple hot copies was brilliant. I thought for about 15 minutes on how to get out of that one and couldn’t think of anything, oh and Ron was Gollum
The beginning kind of dragged I mean I really don’t need to know about all the Voldemort’s minion’s incompetencies. and I thought the end was a little anticlimatic, Snape was the man! but he died so quickly, it was like. oh look its Snape! wait.. he is dead.. and Voldemort’s ultimate duel was kind of fast too. I mean he managed to overtake the ministry of magic but he couldn’t fight off some houseelves and centaurs to go for the final win? They never did explain how Neville pulled out the Sword from the sorting hat but I am glad he remembered HP’s instructions.
I thought it was funny everybody was all in an uproar about a major character death but it turned out like a million people died!! they were dropping like flies everywhere!. But I thought the saddest death was definitely deux ex machina Dobby and poor Fred. I will miss those two. *moment of silence*
oh btw, Kung, my officemates think you are the geekiest geek alive to use ROT13 hahaha.
By Catnipped, 07/23/2007 @ 1:39 pm
oh and Emma Watson looks sooo pretty and cute *fangirly* and Harry needs to shave some eyebrows.
By Chris, 07/23/2007 @ 1:47 pm
You want him to shave her eyebrows? You’re a strange one.
By Kungfucius, 07/23/2007 @ 2:09 pm
I’ll take that ROT13 comment as a compliment
By Ender, 07/23/2007 @ 3:31 pm
Daniel looks positively demonic in that picture. Kind of creepy yet hilarious.
By Tochi, 07/23/2007 @ 6:48 pm
I did not understand one thing about the Elder Wand. Grindelwald stole the wand from Gregorovitch, instead of defeating Gregorovitch. That’s the reason I thought Dumbledore was able to beat Grindelwald and the Elder Wand. Since Voldemort owned Gregorovitch, shouldn’t Voldy be the true owner?
By Ender, 07/23/2007 @ 8:41 pm
JKR probably didn’t think this through too logically. Who needs logic when you have the power of LOVE.
Maybe the wand’s abilities were greatly exaggerated, making people *think* they are invincible when they really weren’t. And thus, the wand gets passed from sucker to sucker, leaving a “bloody trail” of idiots.
By Kabitzin, 07/23/2007 @ 11:27 pm
Just to show I am not completely mean-spirited, here is a much nicer photo of the kids from last month’s Order of the Phoenix photo call in London.
By Catnip, 07/24/2007 @ 12:39 am
why is CHo Chang wearing a painter’s sack? *sorry I had to say it*
By Ten, 07/26/2007 @ 1:22 am
Since I sensed evil emanating from Rowling, I thought HP will have an ending where everyone dies. THen, we get a frakkin’ reset. Thank gawd. that’s not the case.
The biggest sniffles I had was with Dobby. And (gasp!) Snape. I am sucker for unrequited love.
BTW, Neville kicked ass.