2006-10-12 A considerable improvement

After the overlong drudgery that was Order of the Phoenix I was dreading HBP, expecting it to be yet another exersize in tedium. How surprised I was to learn that not only does it hardly ever break the pace, but it is also considerably shorter than OotP, which was crippled by its length.

After a quick set-up in a couple of breezy, but informative, chapters Harry is on his way to Hogwarts once more and, as usual, his year will be made up of classes, Quidditch, girls and fighting the dark side. This is now the SIXTH time JK Rowling has given us this formula and it's beginning to get quite stale now, superior to OotP or not. There are still quite a lot of new features to this book though as Harry continues to learn and meet new people. I just wish it would do something radically different instead of sticking to the usual template.

Rowling's narrative techniques are becoming more apparent, but while they are most unsubtle they do get the job done and I did want to keep reading. Some extraenous scenes of Harry in class could have been snipped away though.

My predictions of who the Half-Blood Prince was may have been totally incorrect but I knew who Rowling was going to kill off. It's just so obvious that she's wants to deal this one last ace before reaching the final book. But still, I guess that this doesn't make it any less entertaining. Which means that the book is just more or less a pot-boiler.

My fave teacher will always be Hagrid. But this book introduces a fun new retired Professor called Horace Slughorn. I do wish we had teachers like this when I was at school (not magic ones), as most of them didn't give a damn about the students. And before you crucify me, I still think Snape is a good guy. No matter what he does, no matter how many punishments he gives Harry or turns a blind eye to Malfoy I still think he's cool.

There's loads of stuff left unexplained in the book, which is kind of a tease. But no matter how crude Rowling's methods may sometimes be, it still works and I still want the final book right NOW. But I like to be the Deluxe Editions and they always come out a few months after the ordinary hardback. So I'll have to wait longer than the rest of you.