Well, Saturday was, as my postal carrier called it, “Harry Potter Day”.  Unlike some of you, I chose to wait by the mailbox rather than be at the store at midnight.  Unlike the rest of you, I wanted to know what was going on before November 2008 (anticipated release date of HBP in theatres).

So, what did I think of it?  Well, it’s not quite as good as Prisoner of Azkaban or Goblet of Fire, but much much better than the disappointing Order of the Phoenix.  Also, at 652 pages, it’s a bit lighter than years 4 and 5.  But it’s definitely good enough that I want year 7 NOW!  :-)  The pace of the book seemed somewhat slower than some of her others, almost relaxed and casual until the last 100 pages or so.  Yes, what you’ve heard is true.  A major character dies.

At some point on this post, I will discuss that, but not without the typical spoiler warnings, so you can read on for a bit more, if you like.  I believe the identity of the fallen was trading rather highly on some of the boards discussing it.  Kudos to those of you who picked it right.  Personally, I haven’t been this surprised since the end of The Sixth Sense, or possibly since May 29, 1980 when I heard the voice of James Earl Jones saying “No, I am your father” to Mark Hammill.  The identity of the Half-Blood Prince will be nearly as surprising to some of you.  It wasn’t someone on my list last week, but I thought it was fairly obvious pretty early on in the book.

This is also an interesting book for our favorite bad boy, Draco Malfoy.  I’ve read other reviewers saying that they actually felt pity for him at some points.  I’ll have to reread it perhaps, but I didn’t feel that emotion on the first reading.   Yes, I know it’s a rough year for him, and having his father in Azkaban can’t be good, but he’s first and foremost a weasel, and it’s hard to have pity for weasels.   Potter’s a little slow on this story line.  I picked up on what was going on with Crabbe and Goyle almost instantly and he missed it entirely.  Perhaps I was just in the properly suspicious frame of mind.

So, what’s in the book?  The usual, Quidditch, The Daily Prophet, disagreements between Dumbledore and the Ministry of Magic, a quick stop at the Burrow and Diagon Alley, and, of course, Harry missing the Sorting Hat (I think Rowling must not like writing those scenes.  She keeps finding ways to have Harry miss them).  Many people will find chapter 2 particularly interesting, especially given what happens later, but I have my own thoughts on that.  We’ve spent the last two or three books learning quite a bit about Harry’s past and the history of his parents.  This book flips the coin on us and we learn quite a bit more about Lord Voldemort and his history.  The book cover is interesting.  I thought it was Dumbledore and Harry looking into the Pensieve, but it isn’t.  It’s an item in The Cave (chapter 28?).  Overall I found the book very enjoyable, but it didn’t have the tension in it that I’ve come to expect from the series.  It’s possible that I’m somewhat alone in that feeling, but I’ll wait to hear what others have to say.  I think that Rowling tries to lead us down an emotional path in this book, and if you’re willing to follow that path, the book might have quite a bit of tension in it.  However, I was not willing to follow that path.  A couple of books ago, I chose a different path, and I seem to be rigidly stuck on it, even now, when all apparent evidence points to me being on the wrong one.

UPDATE: Snog is a Brit slang term for kiss.  I heard it yesterday while watching the movie Wimbledon with my wife.  I either never heard it before, or ignored it previously.  The latter is more likely.  On another note, I've read comments to the effect that Chapter 2 is the best chapter that Rowling has ever written.  I wouldn't go that far, but it certainly is an interesting one.  Oh, and “The Cave” is chapter 26, not 28, as I wrote previously.  There are 30 chapters.
 

Okay, enough of that.  I’m going to talk about a few spoilers now.  I’m just going to use initials for the most part, as I don’t want the text of this page to appear in a Google search, but it shouldn’t be too hard to decode who/what I’m talking about.

I’ll start slow, just in case that didn’t scare enough people away.

• The stuff between HP and GW wasn’t very surprising.  I’ve been expecting that since year 2, and particularly since things with Cho went downhill.
• Obviously, we’ve been expecting things between HG and RW to progress, and it’s nice to see that finally happen.  It’s not apparent whether there’s been any “snogging” yet (is that a British slang term or something that Rowling invented?  I’ve never heard it before, and it sounds almost lewd.  I prefer kiss.).
• The identity of the HBP?  Well, gee, who’s really good at potions and Dark Magic?
• Who the heck is R.A.B.?  The note doesn’t give us many hints, but it doesn’t appear to be a “good guy”.  Whoever it is doesn’t like LV, though, so maybe that’s good.
• HP’s super-hero scene with GW at the end was kind of overdone.  “I can’t keep seeing you or my enemies will come after you.”  Is there a big S on his chest and I just missed it? Oh, that’s right, it’s just a lightning bolt on his forehead.  Hey, does that mean that he’s The Flash?
• Will the school be open next year and will HP be back if it is?  These are obviously tied together.  In spite of HP’s words at the end, I think that if the school is open, he will be there.  This whole series is about HP’s adventures at Wizarding school, after all. I think that members of the O of the P will talk him into returning.  He’ll be sullen and frustrated, but he’ll do it.  Obviously, SS won’t be there, though, and probably not DM.  And will MM be the new head-mistress or will the M of M bring in someone new?  I suspect the latter, but I just don’t know.  This will frustrate me if he doesn’t go back, because if he doesn’t, I’ll probably never learn what N.E.W.T. stands for.  I’ll have to reread the other books and Rowling’s site, but I don’t think it’s ever spelled out.
• OK, one last warning if you’ve read this far, and haven’t read the book yet.  I’m going to discuss the death scene, and you don’t want to know about it in advance.  Turn back now.
• As I said, the death was stunning, but it was stunning to me on about page 560 or so, long before the death actually occurred.  That’s when I realized who it was going to be, and I had to put the book down for a few minutes and think about it.  As I have said previously, I didn’t find there to be much tension in this book.  Rowling was obviously setting us up for something and hinting that SS was going to betray AD.  That’s where the tension was supposed to be.  Would HP be able to stop SS?  Obviously, the answer’s no.  However, I didn’t find that plot-line to have that much tension in it.  Why?  AD trusted SS completely, and so did I.  And I still do.  How can I say that?  Because I trust AD’s judgment.  I think there are some hidden things going on in that scene on the tower, and here’s what I think they are.
• Obviously, AD and SS had discussed the situation with DM and SS’s Unbreakable Vow previously. Remember AD telling HP that none of what he’d overheard between SS and DM caused him any “disquiet”.
• AD did not want DM to kill him.  He still had hope for DM and knew that would push him over the edge.
• AD did still want his “inside man” in the DE’s.  And he was aware that there were some DE’s that didn’t trust SS anymore.  Obviously, the DE’s being at H without SS’s knowledge could not be good for SS.  While killing AD was obviously the primary mission, I think it likely that killing SS if he showed any signs of being un-trustworthy was a secondary one.
• AD obviously believed in the sacrifice of love and that there are people more important to the O of the P than himself.  He may haven’t even thought that he was getting too old to be as useful as he would’ve liked to be.
• The final point in me still trusting SS is AD’s pleading tone at the end.  If all of what I have said above is true, then SS wouldn’t have wanted to kill AD.  But, AD knew it was necessary (to save DM and SS, and possibly others), and implored him to do it.  The death scene was not so much a murder, as a suicide.
• Obviously, these are my opinions, and may be completely wrong.  We’ll find out in a couple years when book 7 is released.  Hopefully we can all wait that long.  Remember, we had a three year wait to find out what happened to Han and if Darth Vader really was Luke’s father.  I don’t think we’ll have to wait that long.
  

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