The Wood Beyond The World Forum Harry Potter and the Deathly H..

It's THE big fantasy publishing event of the moment (though Rowling won't admit to being a fantasy writer), so I thought I should at least give it a thread.

My second oldest son had to have it first, but yesterday afternoon I began reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and finished this evening. It�s the best book in the series, in my opinion. No annoying Quidditch matches � no school, in fact � and the writing itself is much smoother than in any of the previous books, at times downright graceful.

I won�t say anything about the plot, because I know I didn�t want to know until I�d
read it. I�d pretty much forgotten the last book, so I was a little muddled on a few points at first, but I got past that pretty quickly. Anyone who�s been keeping up with the series should be more than satisfied, I would think.

I�d almost say that this last book is worth beginning the series if you�ve avoided it so far. The first three books are pretty conventional school-stories, with Rowling�s splendid imaginings of the wizarding world to redeem them, the fourth seems to bog down in set-up for the rest of the series. Book five has even more excellent satire than the previous books (and they aren�t lacking in that department) and six seemed like mostly a transition to the grande finale. But seven is a fine book in its own right, wherein not a scene is wasted. I think if you�ve even only seen the movies (so far) you�d enjoy it.

I was very pleasantly surprised, or maybe surprisingly pleased.

I whole-heartedly agree, Leah. The writing was much better (thank God), and the story events where logically and evenly threaded through the book; so there was action from beginning to end, rather than a rush of action at the end, which is fitting for a finale book. Also the storyline was so complex and intertwined that it was extremely enjoyable (and necessary) to be able to refer back to events in the previous books to make sense of what happens in this one and really highlights the benefits of careful plotting.




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I particularly liked what she did with Snape. After portraying him as an easily hateable character, she instantly redeems him ten fold (although some of it was predictable). Looking back after I'd read The Princes Tale chapter, I was so moved at his last attempt to connect with the one he lost by looking into 'her' eyes as he departed, I almost broke down!

Very, very enjoyable indeed.

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