New Harry Potter Novel Coming (pricing details too) (1 Viewer)

[Craig S]

Most of the usual places around here were sold out of "Phoenix" by mid-afternoon, which is when I went out looking for it. Finally found a small stack at Kroger's, of all places.

This year, I've got UPS delivering it to my door tomorrow AM, courtesy of Amazon.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

My copy has been sitting at the UPS station since Thursday morning. Here's hoping it gets here tomorrow morning!

- Steve

 

[Chris Farmer]

Just finished the book. It's good overall, it's very good. It may be the best of the series, certainly the first 600 pages of it are. However, the ending has such a series of major major events that it's not yet easy to really judge the book, and it's impossible to even really write a review without major spoilers. Book 7 is going to be hellish to write. I don't envy Rowling the task she's set up for herself.

 

[andrew markworthy]

Up to page 200 (I had to drive back from my in-laws which wasted - sorry, I mean took up - most of the day).

So far it's head and shoulders above the last one. Back to the book ...

 

[PeterK]

how long is it?
I am gonna have to stop watching this thread now, I can't risk a spoiler slipping through. Since I probably won't get to read it till next weekend because my sister already called reading it first.

 

[Chris Farmer]

It's 650 pages, 12 point font like the first 4. For comparison, GoF was 730 or so pages and I believe 170,000 words, also at 12 point, and Order of the Phoenix was 890 pages at 11.5 point font and around 250,000 words. So this one is shorter that Goblet of Fire by a decent margin and far shorter than Order of the Phoenix.

 

[JonZ]

"Book 7 is going to be hellish to write."

She already said it was gong to take awhile to write and more than a few years wait is possible.

 

[Tino]

Picked up two copies (neither my wife nor I will wait for the other to finish it) a few hours ago at Barnes And Noble in Paramus N.J. for 40% off.

As a bonus, the artist for the American editions of the books, Mary Grandpre, was there signing copies of the book.

 

[Malcolm R]

Well, out of curiosity, I stopped at the mall on the way home from work this afternoon to see if there was a major onslaught of HP fanatics. Walked into Wal-Mart, copies of "Half-Blood Prince" stacked to the rafters at $15.78 each, not a soul near them. Picked up a copy and checked out.

Walked back down through the mall, glanced at Waldenbooks and had to laugh to myself at people who had PRE-ORDERED, standing IN LINE at the "HP Reservation Desk" to get their copy which, hello!, was selling for $5 MORE ($20.99) than at the Wal-Mart two doors down the hallway.

No lines and great savings. Who needs pre-orders or midnight lines?

Now, a bottomless glass of ice tea, a nice summer breeze, and the new HP. That's how I intend to spend my Sunday.

 

[andrew markworthy]

Okay, finished it.

It's a lot lot better than the last one - far less flabby and with more believable emotions and a more coherent plot.

I am not going to say what happens because any major plot development is really MAJOR. The last fifty pages throw in revelation after revelation. I think it's fair to say that the book sets up an action-packed Book 7.

Please can I put in a request that at least for the next week nobody submits any spoilers? I think it's only fair to those fans with less time on their hands than those of us who finish this weekend.


Curious - the Brit edition is 610 pages.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

And I'm still waiting for UPS to deliver from Amazon... grrr...

- Steve

 

[Kevin Grey]

Me too. Its 5:50 pm here and according to UPS tracking it isn't even out for delivery (though it arrived in the local area since yesterday). Methinks that I'll be contacting Amazon in a little over an hour for my reinbursement...

 

[BrianB]

Different font & font size I imagine - were you reading the so-called adult edition?

 

[Carlo_M]

The British editions have a different font, and different spacing, hence the pagination difference.

And with regards to the "adult" editions, the only difference are the dustjacket art. The novel itself is identical.
I would recommend the regular edition for the US versions, as any deluxe editions are not standardized (and I don't believe deluxe eds were issued for all of the books).

If you want true deluxe editions, I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND the BRITISH Deluxe editions (which are published in the U.K. by Bloomberg and in Canada by Raincoast). They contain the ORIGINAL text (a lot of "British-isms" are Americanized by Scholastic). Imagine someone Americanizing Tolkien's work ***shudder*** (not that I consider Rowling = Tolkien, but you get my point). Not to mention that you get Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (and not the Sorcerer's Stone).

As I previously discussed, they have the original British cover art, no chapter art inside (and I'm not a fan of Grandpre's work so that's a plus in my book), set in Berkeley font, have gilded edges, are completely clothbound, and have gold embossed letters in the front. Very professional looking.

Here's some links to what the books look like:
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/07...5.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/07...1.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P...2.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

And I bought the UK deluxe 1-5 set which comes in a nice slipcase:
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P...2.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...Fencoding=UTF8
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P...3.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Each book has been less and less altered for American audiences. OOTP has only a dozen or so differences. Except for spelling differences, I would imagine that HBP is identical between texts. There is certainly a lot more British expressions in it than I can recall previously. Having just finished it, I can only think of such things as trivial; this one's a whopper, and the last 100 pages put my on more of an emotional rollercoaster than I could have possibly imagined.

 

[Tino]

JonZ wrote:


What happened between then and now to change your mind?

 

[JonZ]

I reread it and didnt like as much, althought I think it had some great moments. Theres also some critisms in that spoiler tag I put in that post.

Im enjoying HBP more(at page 500 or so).It took OOTF forever to get going, and I often found myself looking at page #s and even looking ahead.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Happiness is... not having to pay for the new HP book. I work for Scholastic and we get it free on Monday.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

Finished it this morning, with a hangover no less.

I liked it more than Order of the Phoenix.

 

[Craig S]

I was starting to get worried as 10, then 11 passed and no UPS. The few times I've had Saturday deliveries before (including HP&tGoF in 2000) they always came around 10. Well, about noon I heard something drop outside the front door. Rushed to the window and saw the USPS truck, not the UPS truck as expected. On my doorstep was a package from DDD. Welcome, but not was I what looking for that day. I went out to the mailbox to pick up the rest of my mail... and there in the mailbox was a box from Amazon with the Harry Potter logo and "Do Not Deliver Before July 16" on it.

I was surprised it came from USPS, as the tracking info at Amazon was clearly from UPS. From the labels on the box it looks like the books were drop-shipped via UPS to my local post office, who handled the actual delivery on Saturday.

Oh yeah... finished it a few moments ago.