Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! (1 Viewer)

[drobbins]

I went to the midnight showing for my daughters birthday. Tonight we will be at the bookstore at midnight also!

 

[Holadem]

3 AM -- up reading.

I just had a WTF moment, Harry said "Yeah, thanks God".

?

--
H

 

[Steve Y]

Hi folks... just finished about ten minutes ago. Not quite ready to discuss spoilery stuff yet... more looking forward to what everyone else will say. And those of you who haven't read the book and don't want to know anything, please, abandon ship!!! I won't give anything away but TEH INTERNETZ is the worst place to be right now!

It was, in fact, the Butler!

 

[Ricardo C]

Yep... Starting to remember the HBP fiasco when every jackasss in the world thought it would just hilarious to spoil the big plot twist in their forum siggies.

I have a class to teach this morning, and then I'm coming tsraight home and unplugging the computer till I'm done with the book. See ya later, folks

PS-- On page 320 now... I stand by my earlier judgment

 

[andrew markworthy]

Read it, enjoyed it.

Bought a copy at midnight and the queue was unbelievable at the local supermarket (apparently at the nearby bookstore it was even worse). A drunk woman ahead of me at the checkout didn't know the book was out and was loudly berating everyone for buying a kids' book. Yeah, right - whereas being an embarrassing lush is nothing to be self-conscious about.

I'll lay off detailed plot discussions until folks have had the chance to read it, but one question for those who've read it [and I promise you that what follows contains no plot spoilers as such, just a general comment about the way the book progresses]:

Anyone else feel a bit annoyed that there were a whole lot of possible plots produced in earlier books that weren't evolved or resolved in the end?

 

[Jason Smalley]

I can't really complain about any unresolved or unevolved plots threads at the end. All of the ones I cared about were resolved to my satisfaction.

I can say that this is the best book in the series for me personally.

Ever since reading an early copy Tuesday, the line in the book that keeps popping into my head is "The Ministry has fallen. They are coming." That solidified the book in my mind. My favorite part of the series has been the head in the sand mentality of the Ministry of Magic. In a world of governments struggling to maintain an image of complete control in the face of de-stabilizing forces, it brings an odd sense of realism to the series for me.

Can't wait to read a more in-depth discussion amongst other members of the forum.

 

[seanOhara]

I've put my own thoughts on the book, in the form of a rather lengthy piss-take, up on my blog. Hopefully it can facilitate some discussion until more people finish the book.

 

[Ray Chuang]

I just finished reading the book (the barista at the Peet's Coffee near my house wondered why I was holding the book and ordering a double-shot cafe mocha at 6:00 am this morning) and I definitely enjoyed it.

However, do be aware the tone of the novel is MUCH darker than previous HP novels, so parents might want to exercise caution reading the book to younger readers. That said--

The book read like Half-Blood Prince Part II much of the time (you need to read Half-Blood Prince to enjoy the novel vastly better). The climax was thrilling and right in tone (Rowling wisely avoided an epic-style climax, which would be totally inappropriate for this novel), and you do grieve for those who unfortunately passed away. :frowning: However, my big gripe is that the Epilogue felt a bit "tacked on," and should have been extensively re-written (it's like Rowling used her original written ending almost unchanged. ).

 

[andrew markworthy]

I want to take back my earlier comments about questions not being answered in the last book. If you look at the following page AFTER you've read the book:
http://www.mugglenet.com/books/futur...ooseends.shtml
you'll see that a very high percentage of questions are answered directly and the remaining ones are either answered indirectly or weren't v. relevant in the first place.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

2 PM. 4 hours of sleep. Believe it or not, it's not my favorite of the books. But once it gets its hooks in (in the mid 400's), it's compulsive.

I'd love to discuss more, but not without people being finished. I was deathly afraid of being spoiled, so I'm deathly afraid of doing that to anyone else.

I will pop in a spoiler (and it'll be a BIG one), because I can't hold it.
Rowling set it all up, and in this unique case it was on my wavelength and I caught it in previous books. It's gratifying, even though most of the twists and turns were hinted at in earlier books, most specifically Snape.

I regret she didn't give a scene for he and Harry, but that's what the entire Epilogue was for (other than that, I agree with Ray on the Epilogue). In rereading the books, Book 4 (p. 649, I believe...I told everyone to rerad it at work!) Dumbledore shows exultation when he learns that Voldemort had used Harry's blood for his dark ritual. I didn't catch it the first time, but it was clear on a reread two weeks ago that it would be critical in 7.
There is more to discuss. I look forward to rereading it without a ticking clock in my mind. I went internet dark since I got home with the book. Hope everyone enjoys the reading.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

While waiting late last night for the book, I was a bit sad to see there weren't too many children dressed up. It *WAS* midnight, but I was hoping for some kids. There were quite a few adults dressed up, and HUNDREDS of teenagers, many kitted out. As I noted this to my wife, the very obvious reared it's ugly head, and I had a pleasant little epiphany.

I love these books...but I've read them all as an adult. Those teenagers were 7-10 years old when they first read HP. This is probably the biggest pop culture/narrative/media event of their life. For me, I suppose it was Return of the Jedi, which closed 6 years of loving Star Wars with my pals. But I think this is even more intimately tied to their generation than SW ever was to ours. These kids grew up with their heroes...and a book is a much richer and more active pastime than a film. A film is significantly more passive and less reliant on the audience and their imagination.

So I started to think about how unbelieveably exciting this must be for them. I am certain that part of what drives Star Wars fandom is a linked nostalgia, a shared childhood memory. And what HP has seems like a much more potent brew. This is not to belittle Star Wars (or whatever the poor bastards in the late 80's/early 90's got). I just think that being present for it was pretty special, even if I don't "belong". So I thought, as excited as I am...this is something monumental for them.

As a reader (and lover of films), I think it's special that theirs is a book.

Just wanted to share that thought, since most of us are adults, and pre-disposed to be annoyed by teenagers in large crowds

My B&N even gave us a little Gryffindor tassel with 7-21-07. I'm glad I was there to see it.

 

[andrew markworthy]

Have you seen any one about this problem?

 

[Adam_S]

Wonderful book it feels so complete I don't really want to discuss anything or read others thoughts on it. I'm just immensely and totally satisfied. A perfect ending to the series. That said I still think Half Blood Prince is my favorite because of the balance between the comedy of manners and the thrill ride mystery. The book is perhaps a little too drawn out, perhaps, in fact, I sort of expect the screenwriters to make the horcrux in the lake be the real one, because it's probably the most elegant swoop for an adaptation to perform, but I really don't want any of that sort of Shelob restructuring fucking with the movies. Though the complexity of the plot, length of the setpieces and multiple giant trademark Rowling pause the climax for lengthy explanations will ensure something of a very long movie if they don't make radical changes. Perhaps those sorts of ending digressions should be christened rowlings in her honor.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Jason,
I also liked very much the moment you included in your spoiler.

No surprise, but my favorite scene came in my favorite chapter.The Prince's Tale:
"After all this time?"
"Always." Said Snape.

Even when it's sort of expected, it was a truly powerful moment. My favorite character.

 

[Adam_S]

my favorite part

How Harry walked through the dementors using the hallow stone. Wow. King's Cross was an amazing scene, and I never expected Dobby to get the Boromir death. Definitely the most powerful loss of the book, imo. Here lies Dobby, a Free Elf. :*)

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I spent the first 500 pages of the book feeling completely betrayed. Nothing much of consequence seemed to be happening plotwise, and meanwhile Rowling is going along vilifying or outright murdering every character we meet (which isn't that many).

Then Harry, Hermione, and Ron were yanked into the Hog's Head pub.

Aberforth was such a wonderful, real, caring and human character that it made me stop hating Rowling for a minute; it was a reminder of what she had given me six books full of in the past. Aberforth ranted and raved, bitter and resentful, and I found I liked him a good deal more than I ever had Albus in six books with Albus — who I had, until this morning, always loved — at least as much as it's possible to love a character in a book. At this point in the game I rather disliked the fallen headmaster, and by the time Harry left the Penseive, I would loath him. I was inclined to toss aside my loyalty for the entire series by then, but plunged on out of sheer momentum and curiosity. When the curse struck him and knocked him dead, I wandered the house for a bit, even.

But then I slipped back under the warm covers of my bed, the warm glow of the reading lamp pouring down from above, and read on. The moment that redeemed Dumbledore for me — the moment that, in fact, redeemed the book and really the series for me — was when Dumbledore broke down and wept openly on Harry's shoulder. However cold and calculating (even arrogant) Dumbledore had been, he had still loved. If he had loved the sister he might have killed, then it followed that he had — as he'd said in the fifth book that he had — loved Harry, too.

And that meant that the revelations in this book had not made the Dumbledore of the first novels a lie, but rather an incomplete picture. I had always understood Dumbledore to be an entirely ethical man utterly above outright lies, even though events within the first six books had proved him capable of deceit "for the greater good."

When it was all to be in Harry's head, my anger flared again for a moment, but then I remembered back to the fourth book — the glimmer of triumph in Dumbledore's eye — and knew, even if the events of the chapter were solely a product of Harry's mind, the facts were right. Whatever Dumbledore told Snape that night, he knew from that moment in GOF that Harry, under the right circumstances, would survive one more killing blow from Lord Voldemort.

And then, if we may, let's jump ahead to the final confrontation blazed across the American cover (though of course we wouldn't have known that before.) After seven years of whispered and conflicting tales about Voldemort and Harry Potter, how nice that the end should have dozens or even hundreds of witnesses. There can be no arguing who strong and who was weak, who was brave and who was cowardly. All the gruesome press about which of Harry's closest confidants would die, and we discover at the climax that none of them will. Rowling has shown her hand; brazenly, even proudly.

I don't know what the battle between the slain Christ and Satan was liked, but I imagine it was something like this; Harry had already won before he had even left the shrieking shack. His mother had sacrificed herself, been forced by Snape's devotion to willfully choose death, to save Harry. Harry had sacrificed himself, been forced by Dumbledore's manipulations and Snape's dying act, to willfully choose death, to save the world.

When he faced Voldemort in the Great Hall, he was more fearsome, more heroic, more pure than Dumbledore had ever been. Voldemort had nothing to wield against him; Harry's sacrifice protected all of those he loved around him, and Harry had nothing to fear from his own death. The only one with anything to fear, therefore, was Voldemort. He entered his final duel the weakest man, or fragment of one, in the room. In the end, Rowling showed more pity than Dumbledore. She allowed Voldemort to be felled not with magic, but with pity.

One thing that I think will only truly be admired about this series in the years and decades to come is the ending. So many great sagas fizzle out. This one has one of the most fitting and appropriate endings of all I have read. As it snapped into place, I really understood what she meant when she said she'd had it planned out from the beginning. It didn't feel like we'd run out of steam, or ceded at last to the unavoidable. I felt like I been guided gently but persistently along a path that had been there from the beginning. Thinking back even to the first scene with an old man in extravagant robes talking to a tabby cat on a darkened suburban street, I can feel the weight of this ending. It all flows together, not in fits and starts, but fluidly.

I don't yearn for a next chapter that will never come; the journey feels complete, and I am content with the destination. I feel a little meloncholy that my time with these wonderful characters and places is over, though I will undoubtedly relive my experiences with them countless times over the years to come.

I am among the older curve of what Chuck has so rightly called the Harry Potter generation. I was finishing middle school when I first found Harry. Any saga from here on out, no matter how great, I will experience as an adult. As much as that thought pangs me, the sadness is overpowered by the gratitude. The defining work of my childhood has turned out to be a really great one.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

One further thought that came to me as I was sitting on the toilet taking a dump a minute ago:

The three brothers in the fairy tale are Voldemort, Albus Dumbledore, and Harry. Voldemort seeks the wand, to fight death. Dumbledore seeks the stone, to find peace from death. Harry seeks the cloak, to face death on his own terms. Voldemort was terrified of death. Dumbledore was tortured by it. Only Harry refused to allow it to define him. He did not allow his parents' death to sentence him like, like Dumbledore did with Ariana's. When the time comes to face Voldemort for the final time, it's no coincidence that Harry's appears from under his Cloak — nor that Voldemort wields the Elder Wand. They are just completing the fairy tale, if a bit out of sequence.

 

[Kevin Grey]

Loved it. Right now probably my favorite of the series. Got it's hooks in me early- the first 150 pages were a blur and more exciting and emotional than almost any of the climaxes of the previous books.

The middle section I imagine will be a little more controversial to some: It was so unlike anything we'd seen before in the series. Despite the ending to HBP, I wouldn't have guessed it would take until well past page 500 to get to Hogwarts.

What Rowling really captured in the middle section was the fear and oppression that was traveling throughout the wizard world. We had read hints about this stuff when Voldemort had first come to power but it was so much more harrowing to experience it happening to these characters.

While it wasn't always pleasant, I appreciated that Rowling essentially put the focus on the core trio in this section as they all had to overcome so much and mature much faster than ever before in this series.

And man, some of this stuff was just so dark atmospherically- the muggle trials in the coutroom with Dementors everywhere, the trip to Godric's Hollow, Malfoy's Manor, etc. Even during the darkest times in the previous books, Hogwarts was always this warm, safe presence and Rowling completely stripped it away here.

I thought Luna's painting on the ceiling was very touching.

The Dumbledore stuff was fascinating. In previous books Rowling has gone out of her way to try and point out how special Harry is because of how different he is from Voldemort despite similar backgrounds. But that's so binary (pure good/pure evil). To see how different Harry was toward Dumbledore at a similar age was far more interesting. I really loved the parallels between the search for the Horcruxes and the Hallows and what it meant to each seeker.

Great finale too. Managed to be suitably epic while still wonderfully personal. It's the latter that's always been Rowling's strength IMO- no matter what she never loses sight of exactly what every character, no matter how minor, should be reacting to what's happening.

I'll have to give it some thought but I'd say my rankings of the books right now are:

1) Deathly Hallows
2) Order of the Phoenix
3) Goblet of Fire
4) Half Blood Prince
5) Prisoner of Azkaban
6) Chamber of Secrets
7) Sorceror's Stone

With 3&4 practically a tie.

 

[Kevin Grey]

I will say that I wish there was a bit more post finale but prior to the epilogue. We don't really see much of the immediate aftermath of the events.

 

[andrew markworthy]