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I tried to post this before I went to sleep last night, but my connection was giving me issues, so I'm posting it now.
I don't know how many people know this about me, but I am a rather avid fan of Harry Potter. My mother was given the Harry Potter books for christmas a few years ago, and I eventually borrowed them and read them... and found them amazingly well written for children's books. The children were not being talked down to, real subjects were being talked about, concepts were dealt with ranging from slavery to racial relations. Each of the first four Harry Potter books, and the two movies, have been excellent in my opinion, and I would recommend them without hesitation to just about anyone of any age.
So, it is with quite a bit of sadness that I am forced to conclude, after finishing the latest book in the series, that this trend of excellence has come to an end.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix is, quite frankly, crap.
It becomes apparent rather quickly that this book is to be very different from the rest of the series... it's bigger than any other book in the series, it's tone is darker, and strange things are happening almost from the start. Even Harry has changed, markedly, from the very first chapter on.
None of these things is the source of my issues with this book. In fact, used properly, all of these things could well have made the book much better than any other Harry Potter book to date. But they were not.
Harry starts out meaner... he all but picks a fight with his cousin and threatens to use magic on him. Granted, he is in a bad mood due to lack of real contact over the summer months but still... this is hardly the hero we have grown to love. This inner darkness follows Harry throughout the story, and though parts of it can be explained by Voldemort's influence on him some of it is quite clearly him, as when he chooses to try to use one of the unforgiveable curses on a death eater who killed Sirius. This is hardly the action of a hero.
Harry's demeanor is not the only dark thing in this book... around page 270 Harry is subjected to a rather grotesque punishment by a new teacher... he is made to write lines using a magical quill, which causes the words to be cut into the back of his own hand and magically healing over, hurting him and scarring him horribly. And at NO point does he go to any teacher, not even Dumbledore, about this. In fact, the issue ends up being dropped entirely and is not resolved by the end of the book, the teacher in question is not even subjected to any sort of real retribution for what she has done, she merely ends up run out of the school towards the end of the book after Dumbledore rescues her from a very angry herd of centaurs.
Harry is generally rather passive in this book, very rarely doing anything on his own to fight back against Voldemort or others who seek to harm him or the school. He reacts far more than he acts, which is a bad trait in a main character. The one thing he was truly doing to fight back, organizing a student-run defense agains the dark arts group calling itself dumbledore's army, was largely glossed over... a few training sessions were described, but for the most part it was treated as a bit of window dressing, even though months of meetings, with meetings held at least once a week, took place. And it seemed to be a place where Harry was at last coming into his own as a leader, and as a teacher as well. This never really came together, however, and the group was shut down rather abruptly as an apparent plot device to remove Dumbledore from the position of headmaster.
A lot of this book consisted of blatant plot devices as well... bits of past history that have never been revealed before suddenly coming to light with the air of afterthoughts. A prophecy concerning Harry and Voldemort which explains why the child was attacked, a secret agreement between Dumbledore and Harry's Aunt which really seems out of character for her, and an associated magical protection thanks to Dumbledore that is the real reason he's required to return to the Dursley's for at least a month each year. Oh, and some further history between Snape and James Potter which paints James as rather an asshole. And Hagrid having a younger brother who is a full giant (but a shrimp) as well.
Even Sirius dying seems to have had little point to it, it was just a lucky shot in the middle of a fight after a whole book of him doing very little and hiding in his mother's house. He actually made fewer meaningful appearances in this book than he did in the third or fourth books, despite being much closer to Harry and in closer contact as well. And in the end, most of the mess including the death of Sirius could have been cleared up just by Dumbledore filling Harry in a bit more, a fact which he himself admits as they were talking after the battle with Voldemort and the death eaters.
All in all, I think this was a very bad book that had the potential to be *much* better. There were scenes in this book which made me laugh, some which almost made me cry, and in the main the imagery was as wonderful as ever. Even the book's subtext was quite clever in its fantastic reflection of our current socio-political climate. But the plot lacked true driving force behind it, and the sudden introduction of major backstory material about the main character when we are more than halfway through the series seems contrived.
Perhaps, and I hope this is the case, J.K. Rowling will be able to use her great talents and revive the true spirit of this series in her next book... but as it is, I'm afraid that the Order of the Pheonix has left the future of the series a mere pile of ashes.
I don't know how many people know this about me, but I am a rather avid fan of Harry Potter. My mother was given the Harry Potter books for christmas a few years ago, and I eventually borrowed them and read them... and found them amazingly well written for children's books. The children were not being talked down to, real subjects were being talked about, concepts were dealt with ranging from slavery to racial relations. Each of the first four Harry Potter books, and the two movies, have been excellent in my opinion, and I would recommend them without hesitation to just about anyone of any age.
So, it is with quite a bit of sadness that I am forced to conclude, after finishing the latest book in the series, that this trend of excellence has come to an end.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix is, quite frankly, crap.
It becomes apparent rather quickly that this book is to be very different from the rest of the series... it's bigger than any other book in the series, it's tone is darker, and strange things are happening almost from the start. Even Harry has changed, markedly, from the very first chapter on.
None of these things is the source of my issues with this book. In fact, used properly, all of these things could well have made the book much better than any other Harry Potter book to date. But they were not.
Harry starts out meaner... he all but picks a fight with his cousin and threatens to use magic on him. Granted, he is in a bad mood due to lack of real contact over the summer months but still... this is hardly the hero we have grown to love. This inner darkness follows Harry throughout the story, and though parts of it can be explained by Voldemort's influence on him some of it is quite clearly him, as when he chooses to try to use one of the unforgiveable curses on a death eater who killed Sirius. This is hardly the action of a hero.
Harry's demeanor is not the only dark thing in this book... around page 270 Harry is subjected to a rather grotesque punishment by a new teacher... he is made to write lines using a magical quill, which causes the words to be cut into the back of his own hand and magically healing over, hurting him and scarring him horribly. And at NO point does he go to any teacher, not even Dumbledore, about this. In fact, the issue ends up being dropped entirely and is not resolved by the end of the book, the teacher in question is not even subjected to any sort of real retribution for what she has done, she merely ends up run out of the school towards the end of the book after Dumbledore rescues her from a very angry herd of centaurs.
Harry is generally rather passive in this book, very rarely doing anything on his own to fight back against Voldemort or others who seek to harm him or the school. He reacts far more than he acts, which is a bad trait in a main character. The one thing he was truly doing to fight back, organizing a student-run defense agains the dark arts group calling itself dumbledore's army, was largely glossed over... a few training sessions were described, but for the most part it was treated as a bit of window dressing, even though months of meetings, with meetings held at least once a week, took place. And it seemed to be a place where Harry was at last coming into his own as a leader, and as a teacher as well. This never really came together, however, and the group was shut down rather abruptly as an apparent plot device to remove Dumbledore from the position of headmaster.
A lot of this book consisted of blatant plot devices as well... bits of past history that have never been revealed before suddenly coming to light with the air of afterthoughts. A prophecy concerning Harry and Voldemort which explains why the child was attacked, a secret agreement between Dumbledore and Harry's Aunt which really seems out of character for her, and an associated magical protection thanks to Dumbledore that is the real reason he's required to return to the Dursley's for at least a month each year. Oh, and some further history between Snape and James Potter which paints James as rather an asshole. And Hagrid having a younger brother who is a full giant (but a shrimp) as well.
Even Sirius dying seems to have had little point to it, it was just a lucky shot in the middle of a fight after a whole book of him doing very little and hiding in his mother's house. He actually made fewer meaningful appearances in this book than he did in the third or fourth books, despite being much closer to Harry and in closer contact as well. And in the end, most of the mess including the death of Sirius could have been cleared up just by Dumbledore filling Harry in a bit more, a fact which he himself admits as they were talking after the battle with Voldemort and the death eaters.
All in all, I think this was a very bad book that had the potential to be *much* better. There were scenes in this book which made me laugh, some which almost made me cry, and in the main the imagery was as wonderful as ever. Even the book's subtext was quite clever in its fantastic reflection of our current socio-political climate. But the plot lacked true driving force behind it, and the sudden introduction of major backstory material about the main character when we are more than halfway through the series seems contrived.
Perhaps, and I hope this is the case, J.K. Rowling will be able to use her great talents and revive the true spirit of this series in her next book... but as it is, I'm afraid that the Order of the Pheonix has left the future of the series a mere pile of ashes.
no subject
As far as Umbridge receiving no retribution for her methods of punishment- well. That's par for the course considering the abuse Harry receives at home, isn't it? I do think the reasonings used to explain that obvious faux pas in the previous four books was rather contrived and put in simply because too many people had made comments about the abusive situation and that was the best J.K. Rowling could come up with as an explanation.
The prophecy- especially about the way it could have referred to Neville or Harry- I personally liked. It does not seem contrived to me as the above did, and I do like the whole explanation that the power surrounding Harry is love. A nice theme I liked for it being echoed at the end of the book when the group squared off against the Dursleys. Dumbledore's explanation is fairly sound as far as his reasons for not revealing it earlier, even if it backfires. Protecting Harry, trying to give him some semblence of a normal life. (And really, it's been long foreshadowed that eventually Harry would face off against Voldemort, and one of them will die.) It was also forshadowed in one of the previous books (I forget which) that Sibyll Trelawny was in fact possessed of Seer skill, so as to who made the prophecy- well, little surprise there, either. Why else would Dumbledore employ someone who so obviously (other than her rare cases of talent) display evidence that she's nothing but a cheap fraud?
As far as James being an asshole, well, there's two sides to every story. Snape's hatred of Harry (probably having a lot to do with the fact that he so closely resembles his father) had to come from somewhere. And as bad as Snape is, he doesn't appear to hate just for the sake of hating. Again, the whole "everybody is human" thing. That, I felt, illustrated -both- James' and Snapes' humanity.
Finally, Sirius' death. Personally, I suspect this is a case of the author couldn't think of anything else to do with him, since what -can- you do with a character who can't go anywhere or do anything? Also, nice chance to heap more grief on Harry, wasn't it? Convenient, that. I don't find it too horrible that he tried to use the Crucio curse, in light of the fact that Bellatrix pointed out that it wouldn't work for him because he didn't -mean- it. After all, he was caught up in a maelstrom of emotion, losing someone he cared for deeply, just when he was finding out what it felt like to have family.
All in all, I don't think the book was great, but I don't think it was horrible, either.