Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Author: J.K. Rowling

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: A

Okay, so this is my favourite of the Harry Potter books.  I love the story within it, the way that the it plays out and the way that things relate to the overall series.  I love the idea of Harry finally becoming good at potions, like his mother before hand, even with the aid of a book (I also love the idea of him working with the aid of a book and Hermione frowning upon it).  The horcruxes are awesome as is the back story of Voldemort that we're given here, and the relationship between Harry and Dumbledore is further developed. Oh! And love is in the air, as the canonical pairings become very clear here.

It's year six at Hogwarts, and Harry's back and taking private lessons from Dumbledore himself with the aim of learning how to defeat Voldemort.  Harry's also captain of the Quidditch team, the favourite student of new potions professor, Horace Slughorn, and increasingly attracted to his best friend's younger sister, Ginny.  It's all great.  Oh, except for one thing: someone keeps on attacking students, and no one's sure who or how to stop it - although Harry is rather determined that the culprit is none other than Draco Malfoy.

The one bad thing about this book is Harry's obsession with Draco throughout it.  Very quickly on, Harry begins to annoy his friends by obsessing over what Draco's up to, and it doesn't take long for him to begin to annoy me with it as well.  Regardless of whether or not Draco is actually up to something (no spoilers), Harry's obsession is still annoying.

That being said, I absolutely loved the rest of the book.  The backstory, the pensive, the horcruxes, the consequences that it has for the rest of the series - the implications that it has for the things that happened before.  Love it all.  The fact that we get to really see why Harry is the Chosen one and what it all means and now what he's going to do with it is great.  The fact that people area actually supporting him through this, even though they don't all necessarily know as much as he does is also great.  Plus Harry and Ginny! I love them together, and I love how we got to see more of her in this book, although I do have to say it wasn't enough.  It's never enough - Ginny's probably my favourite character, and I always want more of her.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Author: J.K. Rowling

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: B

Following the disastrous results of the Triwizard Tournament, Harry Potter was sent back to his Muggle aunt and uncle's home.  All summer he waited anxiously for news of Voldemort's return, growing more and more desperate and aggravated as the days passed by and he began to feel more and more shut out of the wizarding world.  Then Dementors arrive and attack him and his cousin.  Suddenly, Harry is faces being expelled from Hogwarts, forced to face a trial at the Ministry of Magic, and it is revealed that few in the Magical world believe him anymore.  Those who do believe him, and Dumbledore, are in the Order of the Phoenix, a secret organization that operates against Voldemort.  While Harry is able to successfully avoid expulsion and prison, things are not as they used to be at Hogwarts.  He is the subject of gossip and disdain from his peers, and is in constant opposition with the new professor of Defense against the Dark Arts, Dolores Umbridge, a woman who is clearly working for Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge against Dumbledore.

There are elements of this book that are absolutely awesome.  I love the Order, Dumbledore's Army, Kreacher, the emergence of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.  There are so many really great aspects of this novel, that just add to the world of Harry Potter and make it even better.  Really in the long run, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is great because of everything in it that isn't Harry himself.  I think my favourite elements of this book are actually the DA and the growth of Neville Longbottom.  This is the book where the secondary characters really start to take form of their own and exist beyond the mind of Harry Potter.  We've seen how Harry, Ron, and Hermione have been growing all along, but we haven't seen how Neville, Ginny, etc, have been doing so - Order of the Phoenix shows us this through the furthered interactions that Harry has with the Weasleys and the development of the DA.  We also really get to see this calling for teaching that Harry has.  He gets to show others how to do the things that he can do - he gets to expand their knowledge base and in doing so he also expands his knowledge base.  Oh, plus, as much as I hate Umbridge her constant presence places this huge amount of strain on Harry throughout the year, and thus throughout the book, ensuring that the plot is always present.  Voldemort is in many ways a rather secondary threat here, Umbridge is the big focus.  In a manner, it kind of reminds me of the Little and Big Bads of the Buffyverse.  Umbridge is definitely the Little Bad, but she gains more of a focus throughout the course of the book.

The thing that I really disliked about this book, which rather disables it as a whole, is Harry.  As much as I understand what he's going through, this is the book where he really becomes a whiny, annoying teenager.  It makes it hard to like him.  There's a point in the book where I found myself wishing that it was being told from a different perspective, because I didn't care about Harry's self-sacrificing, self-hating, hating the world, attitude.  There are moments when it's great - like when he locks himself in his room out of fear that he's the weapon being used by Voldemort - but for the most part it is less than great.  We're often told that the greatest power that Harry has is his ability to love, but in this book all we see is hate.  He hates others, he hates himself, others hate him... It's a very ugly mess and given just how long the book is makes things a bit dull after awhile.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Author: J.K. Rowling
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: A

New adventures are coming to Hogwarts, just in time for Harry Potter’s fourth year.  The school is playing host to the Triwizard’s Tournament, a competition between champions representing the three great European schools of magic, Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang, as determined by the Goblet of Fire.  Traditionally there are only three champions, one for each of the schools, and with the revival of the championship a new rule has been introduced stating that no one under the age of seventeen may enter their name as a champion.  This is all changed, however, when four names come out of the Goblet; Cedric Diggory, Fleur Delacour, Viktor Krum, and Harry Potter.  At first, only Hogwart’s new Defence Against the Dark Arts Teacher, ex-Auror and extremely paranoid Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody, and Albus Dumbledore seem to believe that Harry did not put his name into the goblet and the school is divided between those few who support Harry, and are primarily Gryffindors, and those who think he is attempting to steal the glory from Hufflepuff Diggory.  As Harry begins to face his challenges one begins to wonder just who has a desire to hurt Harry.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the book where Rowling really succeeds in quickly introducing the main plot of the story and staying with it throughout the entire novel.  The first chapter sets things up really nicely and the events that happen to Harry during his summer each have an effect on things that happen once school starts up again.  The storytelling here is becoming a lot more concise, ironically while also becoming longer.  The fourth book is almost as long as the first three books combined, and by series end is the second longest book.  The way this works out in Goblet of Fire is that the first overt sign of the complexity of the world of Harry Potter.  There have been other smaller signs of it previously – the first example being the deluminator in the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the second being the casual reference to Sirius Black and the less casual reference to his flying motorcycle.  The story here is a lot more concise than the earlier books, but there’s also a lot more going on and we really get to see the world in a whole new light.  We’re introduced to the idea of a magical world beyond just Great Britain, meeting out first international wizards.  We also get to see Harry watch Quidditch for the first, and really the only, time.

In addition to the size of the book, the reader of the book also grows here.  While previous books all had their dark elements, it isn’t until Goblet of Fire that this begins to become really serious.  We see our first deaths of the series – not including the deaths of Harry’s parents, which we’ve been told about and sort of seen briefly before, but not in its entirety.  With the death of Frank Bryce in the first chapter of the book Rowling shows us that she’s not messing around, a fact that she really continues to emphasis throughout both this book and the later ones.  An idea that is introduced in the previous book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, is really reinforced here, namely the idea of Voldemort’s followers, the Death Eaters, and the fact that they’re not all imprisoned.  We’ve known for awhile that the world is not just happy go lucky and there are bad people here, but somehow the presence of the Death Eaters really reinforces that idea.  We’re also really shown that the world is not divided into good people and Death Eaters.  While we’ve already met a number of people who might later be put into the category of “not good” without falling into the category of “Death Eater,” this is the first time that it’s made explicit.  Rita Skeeter is by no means a good person, but she’s also not a Death Eater.  In contrast, Barty Crouch Sr. is far from being a Death Eater, but one might also question if he’s exactly a good person, and that’s without going into the whole issue of Ludo Bagman, or some of the other characters introduced here.

One criticism about the book, however, lies within its complexity.  There is a lot that could have happened and would have made more logical sense to have happened.  I love the tournament in general, but Voldemort’s plan in this novel has far too many possibilities for failure and if you think about things too closely it makes you question just why he went with it in the first place.   Yes, there’s the whole idea of “I must kill Harry Potter” and what not, but there are a lot of ways that he could have taken Potter without the more elaborate plot, with a lot more fail safes built into it.  The book itself is based on something that really makes no sense, but… well, it’s still a good story.  Maybe not my favourite in the series, but I still love it.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Author: J.K. Rowling
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: B+

It’s back to Hogwarts, and as Harry and his friends return for their third year.  As is customary in these books, both the reader and Harry are introduced to greater elements of the wizarding world, in this case the magic world beyond just London and Hogwarts.  Just before Harry returns to school there is an unprecedented breakout at the wizard’s prison, Azkaban, and the deranged madman Sirius Black is on the loose – and looking for Harry Potter.  In the hunt for Black the guards of Azkaban are let loose, and Dementors come to Hogwarts.

One of the things that I loved most about this book was the fact that it broke down the previous conceptions of the divisions within Hogwarts.  Previously it’s been depicted that good people are not in Slytherin and the best people are in Gryffindor, but here we’re being shown a different perspective of things.  Not all Gryffindors are good, therefore presumably not all Slytherins are bad.  This theme really become ones that captures the series; divisions among peoples and yet the ways that we must also come together.  I love, love, love, love this theme and the ways in which it pops up throughout the series.  Previously, even the more mischievous of Gryffindors have been inherently good, while all the Slytherins we know are bullies.

The title of this book, however, is somewhat misleading. While the crux of the climax is in fact about the Prisoner of Azkaban, the book itself is more about fear and a manifestation of fear itself, the Dementors. I think the book could have easily been titled Harry Potter and the Dementors of Azkaban, although the use of two new words might have been a bit too much – with the word “Prisoner” and the similarity between the words “Azkaban” and “Alcatraz” we can assume that the one is some sort of jail. Point is, this book is more about Dementors and what they represent – both for Harry and the world around him – than Sirius Black and the threat he poses, although that is an important part of the overall story of the series. I really like what the Dementors say about the wizarding world. They pose this very real threat to humans in general, as their presence sucks the joy out of a person and can drive them insane and their kiss can suck the soul out of a human – here Rowling tries to answer the question “what’s worse than death.” They represent fear in itself, but the question that people don’t necessarily think about when confronted with them – but I think Rowling is trying to raise – is what can you make of a government that utilizes such a force? And what happens when that government tries to stop using them, or worse when they stop using the government? This threat is far more enticing, and scary, than the Dementors themselves.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Author: J.K. Rowling
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: B

"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware."

Time to resume my love affair with J.K. Rowling’s bestselling Harry Potter novels, this time with the second book in the series Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.  You may remember that in my review of Harry Potterand the Philosopher’s Stone I stated that I was unable to be unbiased in my review of the book.  That continues on with this review, possibly even more so as Chamber of Secrets is one of my favourite in the series.

It’s another year at Hogwarts and our favourite magical trio – Harry, Ron, and Hermione – are back for their second year of schooling.  This is possibly the most dangerous time of all at Hogwarts, however, as the legendary Chamber of Secrets has been opened and Slytherin’s monster has been unleashed on the school – and is attacking students.  Can they find the chamber and stop the monster before the school gets shut down or, worse, before someone is killed?

If the biggest flaw in Philosopher's Stoneis that it takes too long to really get to the point, then that is almost immediately solved  in Chamber of Secrets.  While there is still a bit of preamble, the plot itself is foreshadowed in an early at-the-Dursley's chapter with the appearance of the house elf Dobby (who is, in my opinion, one of the best characters introduced in this book), and the attacks begin following the Halloween chapter - which is relatively early on; the books each cover the course of approximately one year, starting typically around Harry's birthday at the end of July and continuing until the end of the school year in June.  Once again the book is very anecdotal, or at least appears so, but the story is a lot more cohesive than its predecessor.  There's far less opportunity for you to question where it's going or to get bored - not that you're likely to get bored with Philosopher's Stone- because there's more visible to the reader in this book. You still have all the questions about what's happening, but they're all relevant to the plot - what is the Chambe of Secrets, who is Slytherin's Heir and what is His monster?  Rather than question it for a few chapters near the end you get to question it for a lot longer.

The other thing that I really liked about this novel is how much it foreshadows for the greater series - more so, in my opinion, than its predecessor and even some of the following books.  Things that come up in Chamber of Secrets end up playing a far greater role in the overall series - some of them being so trivial that you overlook them when first introduced.  I'm not going to point them all out here because that's part of the fun of reading, and re-reading, the series; seeing all the little details that Rowling put in there that you missed before, or could only really notice in hindsight.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Author: J.K. Rowling
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: B

I’m not really sure that I can do an unbiased review of the first Harry Potter novel.  At the same time, however, I’m not really sure if I’m required to be unbiased, this being my blog and not a scholarly source of any sorts.  At this point in my life, reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is like reuniting with an old friend; life may have changed a lot since I first met Harry and Hogwarts, but going back to this book always takes me back to the first time I read it – when I was less worldly, less jaded, and less critical.  As such, it’s hard to critique this book.

Philosopher’s Stone introduces us to the world of magic and all that it entails.  In many ways it’s a complete story while in many other ways it’s merely a small piece of a much greater puzzle – an important piece, but a small one.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with the book itself or the franchise as a whole (I’m assuming that there are a few of you still out there) Philosopher’s Stone is about a young boy, Harry Potter, who had believed that he was an unremarkable boy until his eleventh birthday.  As a baby he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle, the Dursleys, after his parents died in a horrific accident – it’s revealed early on to the readers that the Potters’ deaths was the result of some remarkable event, but Harry’s non-magic relatives told him only that they died in a car crash, hoping to hide his heritage from him and as a result make him grow up ‘normal’.  All this changes on his eleventh birthday when Rubeus Hagrid shows up and announces to Harry that he’s a wizard and has a spot at the magical school Hogwarts.  From here the story is as much about Harry’s first year in the magical world itself, and all the traditional friend- and enemy-making that such an occurrence entails, as it is about the more sinister elements that threaten Harry’s new world and the titular philosopher’s stone.

In many ways, Philosopher’s Stone is both remarkably slow and remarkably fast in its pace.  There’s never a point when I feel bored by the story or hoping that it would just get to the point – at the same time, however, I’ve read this book so many times that the cover is falling off, the pages are all nicely creased, and I spend half of it quoting lines that are coming up – but it isn’t until a good portion of the book is done that you actually find out about the sinister elements, the philosopher’s stone and what not.  For the most part, Philosopher’s Stone is set up and little anecdotal incidents that don’t really appear to pertain to any greater plot – at least not right away.  While this style works well in the larger books in the series – it’s easy to spend a hundred pages setting the story up when a novel is eight hundred pages long, but less so when the novel’s only two hundred pages – it doesn’t work as well in Philosopher’s Stone.  I’m not saying that the book needed to be longer or really changed in any way – it’s awesome and I love it – I’m just saying that it takes a lot to get beyond the anecdotes and to the greater threat.

Despite this slowness, though, the anecdotes and little incidents that transpire throughout Philosopher’s Stone are absolutely intriguing.  I love the way Rowling weaves together the real world and one that’s merely a figment of her – and our – imagination, as well as the way that she writes a multidimensional novel.  On the one hand Philosopher’s Stone (and most of the other books in the series) is a relatively light read.  At some two hundred pages it’s a book that can easily be consumed in one sitting.  At the same time, however, there’s an underlying current in these books.  You don’t see it as readily on your first read of Philosopher’s Stone as you can in the later novels, but the story is an intricate web and things that Rowling makes a brief mention of in Philosopher’s Stone pop up in much greater significance later on.  In addition to this, Philosopher’s Stone is a tribute to the greater work of literature.  You can tell that Rowling is a well read women not simply because of the skill with which she writes but because of the many allusions to other writings that she makes.  While the books are children’s fantasy novels, they also contain elements of mystery, adventure, thriller, and romance novels (although less romantic in this one than in others), and they show signs of having been inspired by many other great works.  In addition, they allude to real life events, acting as a parallel to many things that plague the real world.  One of the things that really bothers me about fantasy authors is when they don’t appear to have read fantasy novels before writing their own works in the genre, but you never get this sense with Rowling.  From the moment that you pick up Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone to when you put down Harry Potter Deathly Hallows you can tell that Rowling is well read in a plethora of genres, including fantasy.