Harry Potter. Book seven has come and for many people gone in a very short time. I admit to rushing it, the last book was really spoiled for me and I really didn’t want to the final book to be ruined. I had a cold at the time which helped as I wasn’t up to much else.
SPOILER ALERT – I WILL RANT ABOUT THE WHOLE STORY INCLUDING BOOK SEVEN
(but truly if you ever have any inclination to read the books. do not read. it’s such a great story, the mystery is the strongest strength of the series. In fact as I have a bit of stick up my arse about it, you will have to highlight the text with your mouse to read it…. so there)
To start, I was not dissapointed, not in any way. It was a thrilling finale to a story that has given a decade of suspence and adventure to millions.
I read The Philosiphers Stone seven years ago (I think 2000 or 2001). I mocked Alistiar when he would get out his book at lunch time. It was a children’s book, about witches and wizards. Thoughts of The Worst Witch sprang to mind, a similar tale about a young witch in a witches academy.
Eventually I gave in and borrowed the first book from Alistair, and began. I do remember the first few pages, I was having a ciggarette in the sunshine and struggeling with the early chapters. I scoffed at the magical world of “Muggles, Diagon Alley, Hufflepuff, Dumbledore and owls that delivered your mail.”
But there was a little part of me that was picturing myself as Harry, just as I found the ticket to the chocolate factory, rode in a giant peach pulled by seagulls and as a mouse, faught children hating witches in an enormous hotel. There was something about it that (without sounding too charming) was “twee”. It was an innocent lonley child who is being introduced to a world he had no idea existed yet everyone in that world knew of him. The boy who lived was going to Hogwarts, with the magical school supplies and extrodonary sweets.
Soon he would meet his two buddies Hermoinie and Ron, and his enemys Draco and Snape. And begin to learn why he is so famous, what really happend to his parents, and the discovery of an evil wizard who wants you dead. I always see book one, to be an introduction into the magical world. It is introduces the reader to a rich textured world where anything can happen and plants a few little hooks that tug away till you get your next fix.
Book two gives you some more back story on Voldermort, and another adventure for “the gang”. With some dark moments and moderately gruesome part, this “children’s book” starts to mature. It is with Prisoner of Azkaban, that the story really starts. We go further into Harry’s history, with stories of his parents at school and their friends. Some new characters are introduced and Harry finally has something he can call his family. The is little of Voldermort in this book, but some good turns and against the clock rushes.
From book four it was clear that the wider audience was being written for, it was a big book. Harry was growing up and so were all his peers. His previous heroics were drawing attention and his popularity fading. A door opens on a much larger wizarding world than dear of blighty with the world cup quidditch tournament and Triwizard Cup. Here we see more of the adult world, ministry officials and death eaters. The violence and threat that is present outside the walls of Hogwarts.
A paced out friendly quest between Hogwarts and two other foreign schools form the back drop for Goblet of Fire. JK starts to give the characters teenage angst and worries, and the students start to notice each other. Underage Harry is illegally selected by the cup to, alongside Cedric represent Hogwarts and Gryffindor as the only school to have two students in the contest. We see through the eyes of a snake Voldermort making plans and now he has familiar help to get him what he wants, Harry Potter.
After an exciting end to the quest there is no time to breath before we are faced by the murder of your friend and the resurrection of the deformed dark wizard. There is no happy ending and Voldermort is back, but only Harry has seen him.
(twiddle thumbs….. twiddle twiddle twiddle)
From here we wait three years (though I think it was only a couple for me as I had the first four books on tap from Alistair). Three long years after the frequent annual updates to our story. Eventually Jo gives us the massive Order of the Phoenix. You can tell she has been busy.
As we are up to the most recent film, I will mention a little about the movies. It would be rude not to have tried to make the films, and financially stupid to anyone sitting on the rights. They have done a very good job of creating the world. My beef is they gingerly skate over the thinnest surface of the story giving you what seems like point by point markers. I can also appreciate how it is very hard to get such a complex story and not being able to read the onscreen characters with 3 or so pages describing every minute. But there are key bits of the story they miss, in Azkaban we are not told why Harry’s protrunus is a Stag or that the map belonged to his father. In the recent movie (as it is freshest in my mind) they do not explain what the prophecies are and who made it. They totally skip the amazing battle in the department of mysteries, with all the rooms and each of Dumbledor’s army splitting up and fighting for their lives against adult wizards. A lot of story is missing from the house, with Mrs Black in the painting, Kreecher the evil house elf and the discovery of the locket…. with its reappearance in the final story, how are they gonna backtrack that? Sirius dies and Harry mourns him, but as Sirus only seemed to make cameo appearances in the film there was no major relationship.
Grrrrr.
Anyway. I thought Order of the Pheonix was a little long and showed us more (yawn) of Harry’s emotional side and him growing up. It was a bit of an effort at points but the amazing ending made up for it. Now the stage was set for another year, it was public that Voldermort was back, and the Prophecy revealed that in in order for either Harry or Voldermort to survive the other must die. There was no main story in the book, it was the first part of the final story that takes over the last three books.
On comes book six, we have always known there going to be seven parts to the series, so anticipations were high for the penultimate fix. A little smaller than her previous offering Half Blood Prince gives us lots of history of Voldermort, and what he is ultimately after. Harry also discovered what must be done to finally kill his enemy. The book starts showing us something we don’t understand, Snape is taking orders from Deatheaters and is made to make a binding promise to do something in Hogwarts. But Dumbledore trusted Snape, therefore I trusted Snape. It was quickly forgotten until the end when I couldn’t believe it when he did what he did. Things were pretty shitty now, hope was begining to fade, it had been a long fight. Harry, Ron and Hermionie decided not to return to Hogwarts the following year and do what Dumbledore told them and stop Voldermort.
So onto the final book, and I will note that I started writing this entry just after I finished it in July 2007, so things are a little hazy.
The book starts as it means to go on, with a thrilling chase involving 7 Harrys flying through the sky, we wave goodbye to the Dursleys and loose a couple of characters very early on. The theme of this book is to find the Horcruxs and destroy them, Voldermort placed bits of him in these objects, so that he would never die. Perhaps I was expecting a bit more an adventure around the world, getting each bit piece by piece, alas they were all in the UK, though it would have been nice to see more foreign magical cultures from around the globe, the format would have been a bit stale. JK goes all out and we see a lot of deaths in this book with the various encounters with the Deatheaters and Voldermort. There are lots of throwbacks to the previous books including the little magical light Dumbledore uses to extinguish lights make a reappearance, the locket from book five (that they missed in the film) and lots ore of Kreacher.
I loved the adventure in Gringots bank but the final battle at Hogwarts blew everything away. It was epic, involving the two sides of the magical kingdom, it wasn’t simple task of something with a slight sense of danger against one creature or villain, this was a full on war. Giants and spells destroying Hogwarts, people getting killed all over the place, and Harry who must face Voldermort once more, and it is here the prophecy is realised, for neither can live while the other survives
There is a great battle between Bellatrix and Molly (Ron’s mum) including a great line worthy (and slightly similar) to Sigorney Weavers line when she has donned the mechanical suit in Aliens and faces the queen. Language that you probably wouldn’t associate to a children’s book, it seems silly to flag up a mild swearword (bitch) seeing as there has been so much death and violence but it did raise an eyebrow when it happened. The idea of seeing this battle happen on film is promising, but I fear it will be reduced to something less spectacular and I will be disappointed as I was with the finale of Order of the Phoenix
We are treated with an epilogue to tell us what the remaining characters get up to many years later, which is nice. I had listened to a podcast where hardcore potter fans skipped to the epilogue before reading the actual book, where this answers one of the burning questions, does Harry survive?
After the rush of reading the final book, which I did rush as to not have it spoiled, I totally avoided the internet while I was reading, just in case. The sixth book was spoiled for me with a comment on the radio, and it really pissed me off, so I was taking no chances, and I was really quite ill that weekend, so sitting with a blanket and a book was a perfect way to recover. Anyway, after the rush and when you read that final line, you can finally breath again. It was a strange feeling, after reading the previous books you could not wait till the next installment, that there will always be more, and now you knew you had read the final words. No more speculation, no more reading the many fan sites discussing theories and trying to predict what would happen. It was over.
I have only read the series once (and listened to the first five books in audio format) and I will probably begin reading them again one day, but I am in no rush and would happily let father time fuddle my brain a bit so the story isn’t fresh. Though writing this, it is surprising how much you can remember.
I don’t think I need to praise the series or try to encourage anybody to read it, it became the phenomenon it is for a reason, they are excellent books telling an amazing thrilling story. There may be a need to fill such a hole as Potter leaves behind with other books, but I doubt anything will, it’s unique. I am curious to see what JK writes next, though she has no need to publish a book ever again, it will purely be for the fun of it and as anything she writes will be compared to Potter and expected to be as good as Potter, perhaps she should just leave it. Jo has left her legacy in this world, with books that will stand the test of time and perhaps entertain children and adults forever.
I am really hoping that somebody commissions a television series of each book, long after the final film comes out. A platform to take the time to get into the grittier details of the stories not having to heavily edit something into a hundred minute screenplay. Then I will be happy, and not be in a huff after seeing each film, moaning about how much they change things.
But for now, all is well.
