Bloody Dull
Over the New Year's break, I was able to (finally) finish the penultimate book in the Harry Potter series : Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling. That it took me six or so months to read this book speaks to how I feel about it, seeing as how it took only a few days to read each of the first five when they were released. Now, I'm a big Potter fan - of the books and the movies - so to say that I found this book dull was quite hard for me. But, yeah, I found it dull. Dull, dull, dull.There's really not that much plot to speak of in Prince, no Sorcerer's Stone to find, no Goblet of Fire to win, just Harry kind of ambling through his sixth year at Hogwarts while figuring out what Draco Malfoy and Snape are up to (although, incomprehensibly, no one believes him), who the Half-Blood Prince is (the revelation is more silly than clever), dealing with increasing hormone levels in himself and his friends, and meeting with the good wizard Dumbledore in order to reveal the dark wizard Voldemort's past. This last bit is the most compelling part of the book since we get to see (albeit fleetingly) he-who-must-not-be-named's life as a child and student at Hogwart's, but even this isn't as interesting as it should be and comes off as rather mundane.
I think the most frustrating aspect of the book is that Harry hasn't seemed to have progressed much in the ways of magic since the series began. I mean, seriously, why is Harry so weak? He only knows a handful of spells, which would be fine if he were in his first or second year, but he's in his sixth year. We should at least see glimpses of a capable magician if not a downright powerful sorcerer by now. When Dumbledore gives him an important task, or asks Harry to accompany him on a dangerous mission, I couldn't help but think, "Why?" Harry is so inept at even the simplest tasks and schoolwork I don't understand why he is so trusted and held in such high regard by Dumbledore. When Rowling writes about Harry's parents and how amazing they were with potions and spells at his age, it makes Harry look all the more incompetent. He also doesn't seem very smart. I mean, c'mon, why would he trust using a cryptic book of dark spells he finds when he already went through the events in The Chamber of Secrets? I can only hope he gets some skills by Book 7 (I can see him now, all bad-ass in black, a la Luke's first appearance in Return of the Jedi. "You will bring Hermione and the House Elf to me.") or he's going to get a serious trouncing by Voldemort.
I've been pretty harsh on this book, but it's not to say that I'm not excited for the next one. The Half-Blood Prince just felt like more of a lead-up to Book 7 rather than a compelling novel in its own right, although where Ms. Rowling ends this book bodes well for a big, all-out battle between the forces of good and evil in the next. Yeah, it was a bit sappy, and I had images of Peter Parker and Mary Jane at the end of Spiderman swimming in my head, but I liked how it looked as if Harry might finally grow a pair. I just hope J.K. brings back some of the cleverness and sense of adventure from the first five books and leaves out a lot of the glumness found in this one.
Hmm, I'm betting that Harry himself is the final Horcrux and he's going to have to destroy himself to kill Voldemort. Just a guess.
6 Comments:
well welcome to the party.by the way we all think harry is the last horcrux.
well if everyone thinks it than it better not be so. what else could the horcrux be? hogwarts?
hmm maybe dumbledore?
i couldn't agree more. this book was a dull waste of time and has seriously harshed my interest in harry potter. i feel like the series in general has been a waste of time at this point, and you've hit the nail on the head -- harry, as a character, goes absolutely nowhere. none of them really do. sure, ron and hermione like each other and ginny likes harry but there's no ARC for the characters, nothing that changes their emotions... god, rowling is of low caliber. i could go on. =)
true dat, ferr. this book has really just highlighted all the flaws in the series so far. glad you're here, btw. :)
harry has to die. rowling thinks dying is like, the one big emotional thing characters and/or narrative is capable of -- cedric, dumbledore, then harry.
cynical? yes i am!
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