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Prodigal
 
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| There are spoilers ahead. You have been warned. I found this to be an easy read, interesting enough but not worth the hype. I didnt have high expectations, and therefore I wasnt disappointed. Although the story worked overally, there were some issues with it IMO. I had hoped in advance that JK would have the balls to kill of Harry, but it was clear from near the start of this book that she didnt. The 'not-death' sequence was pure flange, as was the Dumbledore plot exposition. I had always expected an "X years later" epilogue, had JK had the balls then it could have been Ron and Hermione (who lets face it were always going to be married off) reminiscing about how they were best friends with 'The Chosen One', and maybe even mentioning some of the mop-up (I'd love to know what happened to Umbridge and the other non-Imperiused collaborators). The actual epilogue was trite and sugary and left me wondering if any of them had ever achieved anything except sprogging; it felt like bad fan fiction. As for killing off central characters, IMO none of the dead characters were central; they were all supporting cast IMO. The only one that could come close to being called a 'central' character was the Weasley twin (I cant remember which one got mutilated and which one died, I always found them completely interchangeable). Tonks, Lupin, Mad-eye, and so on were all supporting cast. Incidentally - how long do owls live? My point being - should Hedwig have already died of old age?
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Prodigal
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| I enjoyed the book more than I was expecting to- definitely more than the previous one, but a couple of things niggled. Sarah (7/25/2007)
The 'not-death' sequence was pure flange, as was the Dumbledore plot exposition. Yeah, I wasn't thrilled by that scene. I may be showing my ignorance here, but what was the deal with the evil baby thing? Sarah (7/25/2007)
Incidentally - how long do owls live? My point being - should Hedwig have already died of old age? I've been working on the assumption that magical owls are physiologically different from real owls, anyway- it would explain why they're so intelligent and trainable (I understand that real owls have fairly tiny brains- their skulls are pretty small, and a lot of the space inside is taken up by their gigantic eye-sockets).
WARNING: the information above may have been subjected to dangerously high levels of ignorance.
OOC (and on Pagga): Carrie
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Knight
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Say what you like: I loved DH. And I cried when Snape died. But each to his own...nesciomancer (7/25/2007)
I may be showing my ignorance here, but what was the deal with the evil baby thing? I think it was meant to be part of Voldy's soul.
PD- Jefri Ib-Mherut, smiter of Gnoll nads
Formerly Akkadis
RL- Issy, excessively bloodthirsty fantasy ref of Warwick LARPs
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Wag
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| Yes, the baby thing was the bit of Voldemorts soul that had been lodged in Harry. The ending was exactly the one I was expecting. I did wonder if she would go the whole hog and actually kill Harry for real or at least kill Ginny for added angst but then this is still a children's book so you have to be careful about how far you push it. As soon as the truth about the Deathly Hallows was touched upon I realised what would happen - harry would 'conquer death'. I was vaguely wondering if he would use them to bring Dumbledore back to actually defeat Voldemort but that would have been truly cheesy flange (worthy of a LRP event, in fact  ). What annoyed me about the book was the amount of interesting stuff that went on 'off screen' while Harry et al were faffing about in the forest. Loads of action occuring and we don't see it because Rowling insists on only showing Harry's PoV for most of the book. It would have been nice to have seen a switch to Neville's PoV for a bit so we could have witnessed 'Neville Longbottom and the Slytherin Headmaster' novel that was going on in the background. Seems like a more interesting prospect at certain points You see, Harry, Ron and Hermione were in an Ocean's 13 (well, Harry's 3) style plot mixed with the Fugitive whereas the rest of the cast were in a typical Harry Potter plot without the main characters. Also, a number of the main characters just die off screen which I don't think is fair to them. At least some of them should have had a Boromir like last stand.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Whispering God is your friend... trust the Whispering God... Ruins of Empire 1st - 3rd Feb, 2008, Gladstone scout centre, Chester
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Wag
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balor (7/26/2007)
but then this is still a children's book so you have to be careful about how far you push it. No no no..... You don't thats nonsense. Plenty of other kids books do kill folk all the time. Its JK rowlings bizarre domination of the publishing world (due to mass marketing rather than talent) That has lead to this bizarre opinion about kids books that they can't 'stretch' the little mites at all.
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Wag
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| There is a limit, though. You can't really have the hero killed unless he then comes back in some way to still manage to save the day. There are some adult horror books that don't do that. You can stay alive *just* long enough to do the job you need to do and then die but you still need to do the job. Frankly, she was writing the deaths with no pathos or drama behind them at all which is a worse crime - making life seem cheap. Better to have one or two very well written deaths than lots of cheap ones. Far more impact.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Whispering God is your friend... trust the Whispering God... Ruins of Empire 1st - 3rd Feb, 2008, Gladstone scout centre, Chester
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Prodigal
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You can kill the hero if his death achieves the final defeat of the bad guy.
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Squire
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In a word disappointing, I had the feeling that JK was just looking to the finish line. The conclusion was reasonable enough and the series wrapped up. The Severus thread was by far the best. Harry survived, no surprise there. The (supporting) character deaths annoyed me as they were thrown in purely to demonstrate how far-reaching and lethal the return of Voldemort to power was. If you're going to kill someone off at least have the courtesy of writing about it like the death of Sirius Black rather than comparable to an obscure footnote; "by the way character X died in that last part."
One last thought; you should never kill off fluffy animals/birds it's just not on!
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
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