Monday, December 12, 2005
Just Read: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Where to start with Harry Potter? It's one of those things that's so popular because it's popular. I've read similar things done much better. But it's fun and I enjoy reading it.
In the last installment, we saw Harry start to be an angsty teen - he was angry at everyone and wasn't interested in listening to anyone. Fortunately, Harry seems to have grown up a bit more over the summer, so I didn't feel like smacking him in the head every other page.
As with all of the other books, Harry and his friends continue their fight against Lord Voldermort. This time around, it's open war. Voldermort's return is publicly known, so Horgwarts and the rest of the wizarding community is operating in an environment of fear. I'm guessing J.K. Rowland draw a lot of inspiration from the current "War on Terror" - for example the Ministry of Magic is quite happily leaving people they know are innocent in prison so the public feels they're doing something useful.
I really enjoyed the Half-Blood Prince. It's probably my second favourite of the series so far (after Prisoner of Azkaban). While fairly obvious, the death of one of the major characters was done fairly well (unlike Order of the Phoenix, where it seems a bit more tacked on).
I'm looking forward to the movie version, but only if they manage to get Hugh Grant to play the Prime Minister.
In the last installment, we saw Harry start to be an angsty teen - he was angry at everyone and wasn't interested in listening to anyone. Fortunately, Harry seems to have grown up a bit more over the summer, so I didn't feel like smacking him in the head every other page.
As with all of the other books, Harry and his friends continue their fight against Lord Voldermort. This time around, it's open war. Voldermort's return is publicly known, so Horgwarts and the rest of the wizarding community is operating in an environment of fear. I'm guessing J.K. Rowland draw a lot of inspiration from the current "War on Terror" - for example the Ministry of Magic is quite happily leaving people they know are innocent in prison so the public feels they're doing something useful.
I really enjoyed the Half-Blood Prince. It's probably my second favourite of the series so far (after Prisoner of Azkaban). While fairly obvious, the death of one of the major characters was done fairly well (unlike Order of the Phoenix, where it seems a bit more tacked on).
I'm looking forward to the movie version, but only if they manage to get Hugh Grant to play the Prime Minister.
# posted by Simon Dugard @ 12:49 pm 
