OT: Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows

[gregebowman]

Spoiler alert!!

I just finished the book, and although I liked it, I didn't like the epilogue. It just 19 years into the future, and yes, for those who didn't know, Harry survives. But the epilogue only tells of Harry sending off his & Ginny's kids off to Hogwarts, and also Ron & Hermoine doing the same. There is no mention of what happened after Harry defeated Voldemort, or what he's been doing for a living for the past 19 years. I wish JK would have expanded on what Harry's been doing all those years. Maybe that's one of the subject's she write about if she ever goes back to writing another tale.

[Atrocities]

Who would have thought that some of the greatest epic literature of the last 100 years would all come from that little island nation. Lord of the Rings and now this Harry Potter nonsense.

My nephews just love it. I don't get it.

[Baron Grazic]

From what I have heard Gregebowman you are not the only one who dislikes the Epilogue. It would have been much better to leave the reader finish it the way they wanted.
Mind you - I've never read any HP books, this is just what a few people have told me.

[Renegade 13]

I've read the first book, and while I can understand the appeal to those of a...younger age group, it isn't exactly what I'd call a literary masterpiece. Nowhere near as good as Lord of the Rings, etc. Then again, that's just the impression I got from the first book.

[douglas]

Renegade 13 said:
I've read the first book, and while I can understand the appeal to those of a...younger age group, it isn't exactly what I'd call a literary masterpiece. Nowhere near as good as Lord of the Rings, etc. Then again, that's just the impression I got from the first book.

The first book is not enough to judge the entire series. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer/Philosopher's Stone is definitely a kids book. As the series goes on, it gets both darker and more mature with each book. I don't recall where I read it so I can't provide a reference, but ISTR that Rowling planned from the beginning to target each book for an audience the same age as Harry in that book, so the readership could grow up with the series as it was released. With each book set a year apart and there being seven of them, that's quite a difference from start to finish.

[Renegade 13]

Good to know, thanks.

[AMF]

Read this article for what JK Rowling has said happened in the intervening 19 years:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/book....ap/index.html

to wit:

Rowling said the world was a sunnier, happier place after the seventh book and the death of Voldemort.

Harry Potter, who always voiced a desire to become an Auror, or someone who fights dark wizards, was named head of the Auror Department under the new wizarding government headed by his friend and ally, Kingsley Shacklebolt.

His wife, Ginny Weasley, stuck with her athletic career, playing for the Holyhead Harpies, the all-female Quidditch team. Eventually, Ginny left the team to raise their three children -- James, Albus and Lily -- while writing as the senior Quidditch correspondent for the wizarding newspaper, the Daily Prophet.

Harry's best friend Ron Weasley joined his brother, George, as a partner at their successful joke shop, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Hermione Granger, Ron's wife and the third person of the series' dark wizard fighting trio, furthered the rights of subjugated creatures, such as house elves, in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures before joining the magical law enforcement squad. The couple had two children -- Rose and Hugo.

Luna Lovegood, Harry's airily distracted friend with a love for imaginary animals who joins the fight against Voldemort in the Order of the Phoenix, becomes a famous wizarding naturalist who eventually marries the grandson of Newt Scamander, author of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them."

And what Muggle, or non-wizard, song would have been played at the funeral of Albus Dumbledore, the most brilliant and talented wizard the world had ever known?

"Surely 'I Did It My Way' by Frank Sinatra," Rowling told her fans, referring to the song "My Way," written by Paul Anka but popularized by Sinatra, among other singers.

[Caduceus]

I would agree that the first was good kiddie fantasy lit.

She really hit her stride with Prisoner of Azkhaban and if you really like fantasy, you're letting yourself go without if you don't at least read that far into the series.

I was somewhat disappointed with the epilogue as well, but if you think about it, truly, all Harry wanted was a family. The epilogue skips to that stable point in his career and all the primary characters are again together.

[dogscoff]

Atrocities said:
Who would have thought that some of the greatest epic literature of the last 100 years would all come from that little island nation.

LOL! You crack me up sometimes AT. This 'little island nation' does have something of a tradition when it comes to literature, and there's substantially more to 20th Century British literature than Rowling and Tolkien.

I've read the first Harry Potter book, and it was OK. I didn't really understand the hype, but then I'm not 9 years old. If it makes kids feel the way I did when I was a nipper reading the Narnia books, then the hype is justified.

IMHO a far better read (than Rowling, and probably even than Lewis) is Phillip Pulman's His Dark Materials Trilogy, which is another kids' series that appeals to adults, althouth admittedly HDM seems to be aiming a little older than Potter. Read the books now, so you can fully enjoy the big-screen cgi-fest that's hitting the cinemas soon.

I still think they should have cast Rik Mayall (in his Lord Flashheart persona) as Lord Asriel.

[Baron Grazic]

dogscoff said:
I've read the first Harry Potter book, and it was OK. I didn't really understand the hype, but then I'm not 9 years old. If it makes kids feel the way I did when I was a nipper reading the Narnia books, then the hype is justified.

I just finished reading the Narnia books to my boys. Will start on the Hobbit and LotRs soonish.
Have no intention of reading the Harry Potter books to them.