The Values of Halfs

I have been neglectful yet again. I have finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince for almost a week, and I haven’t re viewed it. I also neglected other reviews, but I may do those later. I will tell you of my tardiness at the end of this entry. This is of course the 6^th in the Potter series by J. K. Rowling. You can read what I said about the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth books following the links.

This is actually the first book in the series to contain fewer pages of text that the previous book. You can tell when reading it. It feels like it contains less things happening, but the events seem to carry a greater importance. I had originally hoped that the movie would come out right before I was ready to read this book. That way I would have seen 6 of the movies before reading the books, but alas they moved the release date back. Rather than wait for 6 more months I went ahead and read it. As a consequence there is no movie to compare it to. That means straight on to my take on the book.

Like previously I’m really not going to say much about specific things in the book. That really affects this review more than previous, because this books starts to bring to a head the themes and questions that have carried through all the novels. This one doesn’t really have the nice beginning, middle, close of the previous books. Those all had good closure for the conflict of that book. This one felt more like the first quarter of a game. The book ended but it wasn’t really closure. All of the buildup of the previous books built up to the point that it just exploded, and then it said to be continued. That’s why I chose to go ahead and read the next book right away. Yes that is why I didn’t write the review right away. I was busy polishing off number seven. But that means I now have to reconstruct some of my thoughts from last week and not have them tainted by having read book seven.

So basically this one is well written and planned, but the reader may not realize how well until they read the seventh book. Previously I had mentioned that The Order of the Phoenix, TOoTP, had diminished the likely hood of some possibilities for some of the characters, and that it left me wondering. Well this book did something odd. It seemed to have decreased the chances even more, BUT… I think it actually increased the likely hood of the things I had hoped for. I know that sounds odd, but that’s how it felt. That is why I think it is quite well written, even though it may not feel like it is as good at TOotP on first read. I urge all to dive deeper and think like a weaver of tales. And now for spoilers.

I’ve altered the following text for those that don’t want spoilers. Copy the text to here to decode it.

V jnf cyrnfrq ng gur tebjgu bs frevbhfarff naq senaxyl qrnguf bs yvxnoyr punenpgref va gur cerivbhf obbxf. V xabj gung fbhaqf bqq, ohg vg nqqf na nve bs ernyvfz naq “srne bs ybff” gb gur frevrf. Vg znxrf lbh gnxr zber pner va jung vf tbvat ba naq gelvat gb svther bhg jung vf unccravat. Lbh nyfb qba’g gnxr n punenpgre’f cerfrapr sbe tenagrq nf zhpu. Naq gurer unf orra na rfpnyngvba bs gur vzcbegnapr bs gur punenpgref gung qvrq. Gung yrnqf zr gb gur cbvag gung Qhzoyrqber unf gb qvr. V guvax V ernyvmrq guvf nsgre gur svefg pbhcyr bs zbivrf. V fnj gurz orsber ernqvat gur obbxf nsgre nyy. Vg jnf qevira ubzr gbb bsgra gung Uneel jnf eryngviryl fnsr ng Ubtjnegf nf ybat nf Qhzoyrqber jnf gurer. Ur jnf gbb jvfr naq cbjreshy naq sbe Uneel gb or va erny qnatre naq srry ybfg, ur unq gb or erzbirq. V erzrzore jura Ahzore 6 pnzr bhg naq V urneq fbzrbar fnl gurl pbhyqa’g oryvrir fur xvyyrq uvz. V vzzrqvngryl xarj Nyohf jnf qrnq, naq vg cyrnfrq zr sbe gur tbbq bs gur gnyr. Vg’f shaal, ohg xabjvat gung znqr vg rnfvre sbe zr gb ernq gur obbxf zber yrvfheryl. Qenpb’f jbex gb yrg gur Qrngu Rngref va jbeevrq zr, ohg uvf ernpgvba gb Terlonpx naq urfvgngvba ba gur gbjre erarjrq zl ubcrf. Fancr’f zheqre bs Nyohf ba gur gbjre znqr zr fpnerq gung zl ubcrf sbe gur obbxf zvtug or pehfurq, ohg gur synzr bs ubcr crefvfgrq va gur qnexarff gung Qhzoyrqber unq cynaarq, creuncf rira erdhrfgrq, uvf bja qrngu.

And that question forced me to jump straight to the next book. I said screw it, I’m going to read it now. The suspense was killing me. I feel sorry for those that waited two years for it to be published. Anyway as you expect I highly recommend the series, but I think that goes without saying. And so the next review comes shortly.