Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows - POTENTIAL SPOILERS

[Crothian]

I really enjoyed it. I thought the characters rang true. There was a lot going on and I think she handled it quite well with the brief look at so many different characters but I really got a feel for what they had been up to.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I just finished the book and found it to be immensely satisfying. I liked the postscript, I liked how Rowling tied up the Harry/Horcrux thing, and I loved how Snape's story was resolved (and Harry's late-arriving respect).

"Would you like me to do it now, or would you like a few moments to compose an epitaph?"

That just might be the best line of the entire series.

I also think that Neville's retrieval of the sword is perfectly explained by the reasons given above by a couple posters.

 

[Vocenoctum]

Percy's return is noble, but rather short.

Percy's return was meaningless to me.

Dobby appears for almost as many pages as it takes for Harry to dig his grave and hold his funeral.

Dobby's death was well done I think, certainly it at the least had the ring of being "fully told".

Snape's ultimate sacrifice is forced, short, and ultimately pointless - he serves as Dumbledore's post-it note.

This was really the biggest "plot" problem I had. If Snape had been Killing Cursed, then Harry would never know? It was just a strange accident of fate that put Snape in the position to die slowly. The "memory" extraction was one of the scene's in the book (like Nagini attacking Potter) where the writing didn't paint a very good image for me, and I didn't immediately grasp what was happening.

Remus and Tonks make a few brief appearances and then get offed to serve as some sort of parallel to Harry's parents - ironic, considering Harry attempted to spare little Teddy that fate earlier in the book.

Their deaths were off-screen, and not very invested. At first when I read it, I thought they actually MIGHT be sleeping or something.

The thing is, I didn't like it, because immediately after Harry finds out they're dead and his Godson has no parents, he then must go die. It wasn't raised in the text or anything, so oh well.

Then of course, there is the issue of Harry's survival as the 7th horcrux. Ok, I get that Harry needed to die for it to be destroyed... I suppose. But if it was so easy to just zap him, kill the Voldemort bit, and then let him wake up back - why did it need to be Voldy who did it?

I'm not sure I can explain it, but I do understand it, in some way. Maybe it's because the Killing Curse tears your soul, or because of the special link between them, or any number of things, but it made sense to me that Vold had to deal the strike that would kill that portion of Harry that was his soul.

(how could Voldy fly? did they ever address that?),

It was hilarious to me, because the Order makes a point of saying that he can fly, and it's obviously something unusual.

Meanwhile, in Movie 5, by all appearances, every death eater there was flying.

this just seemed a bit much. At least give us the satisfaction of having Harry duel with Voldemort a bit before he was killed by accident for the umpteenth time.

It worked for me, because their duel was not about raw power or magical talent. It was about the quirks of fate that led to Vold's fall, with Harry as the central figure.

Finally, the epilogue.

It certainly could have and should have been done better, but it was fine for what it was.

It did fail in updating the world, and did anyone doubt that at that point Harry/Ginny and Hermione/ Ron would be together?

More would have been served by updating others, especially Luna, but I guess it didn't work out that way.

All in all, I did actually like the book. I just felt like it suffered a bit under its own weight. To be honest, I've prefered the movie portrayals of the characters and the simplified plotlines a bit more, if only because they actually make the story feel somewhat heroic.

Like I said, I think this book was made with the movies in mind. A lot of stuff will be trimmed and whatnot, and I'm sure the epilogue will look better on camera than the description gives.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I thought it was a very strong ending to the series. I liked that JKR started killing off characters very early on, beginning with one I wouldn't have even thought to have killed -- and doing so in a way that emphasizes that this really is childhood's end -- and kept on going.

I have one quibble:
[sblock=The Room of Requirement]Why would Voldemort believe no one had ever found the Lost Items version of the room when it was filled to the brim with other people's stuff?[/sblock]

Other than that, I found it very well plotted, and I especially like the obvious-in-retrospect key to Snape's character.

The epilogue was a little cheesy, but she wrote the last line of the book years ago, before she had matured as a writer. She wanted to use it, so she had to have an epilogue. Given how much WASN'T in the epilogue, I'd say she restrained herself quite a bit. Other than two romantic questions being answered, it didn't really tell us that much.

Given that she's the richest woman in Britain by a large margin, I don't think we'll see any more wizarding books until she's good and ready. (Maybe in time for her grandchildren to read them.) I suspect she's going to do a Richard Bachman number and start writing something very different, just for the hell of it, though.

 

[Tiberius]

Obviously by this point, spoilers.





I would tend to doubt that Harry went into being an Auror, but for a different reason than the fact of Voldemort's defeat. Aurors could reasonably expect to get into a lot of fights over the course of their career. Harry wanted the power of the Elder Wand to die with him, once his time is up. If he is ever defeated in combat, the ownership of the wand passes, apparently, to the victor. Thus, if he was so much as Disarmed even once over the remaining course of his life, the wand's power would remain unbroken. He's much more likely to stay out of duels if he's enjoying a quiet life with Ginny than if he's on the front lines of Dark wizard catching.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Oh, and JKR has answered the Crookshanks answer in a book, just not the novels. She wrote two small Hogwarts textbooks for the (British) Comic Relief charity and the magical cat-thing that Crookshanks is apparently one of is detailed in one of them.

For shame, false Potter fans, for not owning all JKR's wizard books!

 

[blargney the second]

I have one quibble: Why would Voldemort believe no one had ever found the Lost Items version of the Room of Requirement when it was filled to the brim with other people's stuff?

Answer: hubris. Riddle had no shortage of it.

I really enjoyed Deathly Hallows. It made many of the unexplained inconsistencies in previous books make much more sense. Here are some things that stood out to me as interesting:

1) When Harry left Privet Drive and particularly when Hedwig was killed, I thought, "Ooo, he's starting the Hero's Journey. This is going to be a good one." It became clear that the entire rest of the series was setup for a very solid Joseph Campbell story in the final book. Rowling executed some excellent variations along the way.

2) The widespread terror that Voldemort's regime caused was impressively implemented. When confronted with fear beyond what they'd ever experienced, people buckled in their strongest opinions. Xeno Lovegood was awesome.

3) I loved that Dumbledore was human. He made mistakes along the way, and sought to make reparations afterward when he felt contrition. Prior to reading the book, I was convinced he was going to come back from the dead. Phoenix and all that. I was glad to be wrong.

4) My understanding of the last fight with Voldemort was that the Elder Wand knew who its true master was: Harry. He'd destroyed so many of Voldemort's Horcruxes that he'd irreparably damaged V's soul. When Voldemort killed him, Harry actually won that duel because Voldemort did more harm to himself than to his enemy.

5) I don't think Draco was a bad guy. I was happy that Harry showed him clemency.

Damn fine book.
-blarg

 

[blargney the second]

Oh yeah, and Molly Weasley vs Bellatrix? That was boss.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Oh yeah, and Molly Weasley vs Bellatrix? That was boss.

That was hardcore, as was Narcissa Malfoy turning out to be a mother first, and a Neutral Evil bitch on wheels second. I honestly believe this is a series that only a parent could have written the way it turned out.

I also think she did a great job with her faux Nazis and made the people who knuckled under to the regime more pitiable than despicable, while still not negating the evil they were helping as a result. Mr. Lovegood was a much more complex character than can be found in any of the Potter-wannabes that have sprung up since this series first debuted.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Obviously by this point, spoilers.





I would tend to doubt that Harry went into being an Auror, but for a different reason than the fact of Voldemort's defeat. Aurors could reasonably expect to get into a lot of fights over the course of their career. Harry wanted the power of the Elder Wand to die with him, once his time is up. If he is ever defeated in combat, the ownership of the wand passes, apparently, to the victor. Thus, if he was so much as Disarmed even once over the remaining course of his life, the wand's power would remain unbroken. He's much more likely to stay out of duels if he's enjoying a quiet life with Ginny than if he's on the front lines of Dark wizard catching.

Good point. While there is nothing to prove/disprove this theory and won't be for a very long time - if ever - it's not a bad bit of reasoning at all.