oh, very well

[calimac]

Figuring that somebody will spill the beans on the surprises sooner or later, I went to the bookstore yesterday and read the last 150 pages of Harry Potter VI.

It took about half an hour. Big type. Lots of white space. Lots of skimmable sludge.

I remember actually enjoying the first book in this series, but there's not a power in the 'verse could get me to go back and read the first 500 slabs of this tome.

I opened the tome in the middle of a long conversation between Harry and Dumbledore. They're trying to figure out what Voldemort is trying to do. It's not a patch on conversations in which Frodo and Gandalf are trying to figure out Sauron. It's difficult to keep reading the page when one's eyes are rolling over picayune back-reference distinctions between what Voldemort did two years ago, what he did four years ago, and what he did five years ago. I've never been able to remember which things happened in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Secrets and which happened in Harry Potter and the Fire of Ashbacan.

Throughout the new book, Harry lectures down at his professors and other superiors like an arrogant little sh*t.

I found out who the Half-Blood Prince is. I did not find out why it matters.

I found out who got killed. It was exactly the person I had expected. What I did not expect was the identity of the murderer. By using that person, Rowling has thereby undercut what I'd considered one of the most charming aspects of her series all the way back to book one. The remaining characters spend the closing chapters wondering why the victim had been foolish enough to trust the murderer. Good question.

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Well, the evidence is there that the murderer was in fact acting a part in an agreement with the murderee.

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

As I have been saying, Bruce came to that conclusion without any prompting from me (he read the book after I did, and I don't burden him with my fannish proclivities), so I have the feeling that it's the reading (that the murderer was doing what the murderee wanted) that Rowling intends. I certainly hope so.
I wouldn't like the series half as much if what I consider the best lesson therein (don't let your prejudices color your actions) is undercut by a "ha ha, this person was EXACTLY what he was thought all along"....