Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows [spoilers abound]
 

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movi...ref=rss_latest

WOOHOO! A release date is finally set for the last Harry Potter book! July 21. I'm already counting down.

Obviously slightly bittersweet, since it's the end, but I've been looking forward to this book for too long to be upset that it's ending until it's actually ended.

I suppose this thread can also be used for any discussion of expectations/predictions/etc.

Which means I have to make that pre-order NOW.
Great news. I just hope she doesn't kill off Harry. I seriously hate when an author does that. I always feel robbed when the main character dies, especially after a series of books.

Holy shit YES. I thought this broad was gonna wait at least two years to release it. Man I can't wait. Gonna be a pain in the ass somehow getting theEnglish version here in Guatemala. Fuck yes.

Name sounds interesting. And what exactly was the Godric's Hollow Harry was talking about visiting in the end of the last book?

Snape's probably the only hero that's gonna go down.

Should've been July 7th. However, that date might as well be the British 9/11 for Londoners, so moving it back is probably a bit of a good idea on that one. I'll be picking this up on the day regardless. Not because I love Harry Potter, but because I can't just not finish the series after reading all six previous books. >_>

His parents' house.

Oh, so true. *preorders*

I figure with my best friend and I both wanting to be involved, I'll preorder a copy now to guarantee it, and then we'll go to the midnight release and get another one. =D Last time we had a party where we read the first 70% of the book out loud. After that we had to read by ourselves because reading out loud took too long. =P

Additional Spam:
Also, OO: If you can't get a copy of the book for a decent price and it would be cheaper for us to get the book and ship it to you, I'm perfectly willing to do so.

Drex, that'd be awesome. I'm sure we can work something up before this baby comes out.

I kinda envy some of you people that can read the entire book the first day. I took four or five days to finish Half Blood Prince, mainly because of my compulsions to double/triple read every page and back referencing anytime I notice something.

I reckon she will kill him. Apparently in interviews she's mentioned that she doesn't want to be harrassed for spin-offs or follow-ups, so she might take the easy way out.

I love queuing up for these books; last time I met a complete madman who could've easily passed for a wizard. He was pretending to read out of the book about Hermione killing Harry, Ron's utter fury, amongst other such things..

I envy you people who can actually take time to read it; I have to go back over the book about 10 times just to make sure I picked up on everything.

Yeah, first pass is REALLY quick for me, it all lodges itself in my short-term memory, but is quickly forgotten if I leave it be. It takes a second read to cement everything. I can't force myself to slow down on Harry Potter, though, because I always HAVE TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS. =D

I'm hoping she doesn't kill him off. I could see it being necessary or even a good move, but if I were her I'd leave the option open. She's a strong enough person that she can say no to a spinoff/sequel as long as she wants, but keeping the option open means guaranteed money 25 years down the line when she decides she's going to resurrect the series. (hey, I can dream)

Damn man, why does she act like such a huge fucking bum when it comes to the idea of continuing to write about Potter? Bitch is like the richest person in the UK, what else does she have to do? Do it for the kids woman!

It wouldn't surprise me if her way of killing Potter off is that, when he kills Voldemort he realizes that the connection they share is so deep that they both have to go down. Something sad like that. If I can get even sillier with my speculations: Maybe Dumbledore will come back at that point and do something sad.

Additional Spam:
You know, I remember when Dumbledore first finds out in book IV that Harry and Voldemort now share the same blood it's noted that Dumbledore has some sort of triumph on his face briefly? Mixed with sadness? I just can't see how the fuck Harry can beat Voldemort so maybe he doesn't. Maybe Voldemort will wipe his ass out and die afterwards because of the blood. Written in such a way as to not make Potter out to be a punk, of course.

She claims that Dumbledore is dead, and that dead is dead. I find that hard to swallow, since she made it a point or writing in that phoenix stuff with him, and the whole point of phoenix is that they get reborn.

I'm curious to see what direction the overall book takes, since she's always had Hogwarts classes and such to rely on for filling in the storyline. It sounds like Harry might not even go to school in the book. Also curious where Draco's going to fall in this, since he sorta did his job, sorta didn't, and it's hard to tell if he can emotionally handle being in the Dark Lord's employ.

Also, I'm stating now. I call the name Harry Potter when July rolls around. :D

I GOTZ DUMBLEDORE

Anyhow, yeah. There are just entirely too many clues pointing towards a rebirth of Dumbledore. Have you seen that DUMBLEDORE IS NOT DEAD site? The general setting of the book also gets me curious considering the shit Harry was saying at the end of the last one. What if Draco somehow helped?

Anyway, I wonder if Regulus will be in it as a kind of replacement for Sirius. That'd be cool. Well, unless he actually is dead of course.

I though this was going to be about Harry Potter naked on a horse, which temporarily blinded me yesterday.

You guys really read it that fast? I do a chapter or two a night on the toilet. =)

I would make a thread about Harry Potter naked on a horse, but he's 17 and I prefer not to go down that path. :P Besides which most people don't care that he's branching out professionally, just the prudes and the ultra-conservatives.

That was just odd. Full frontal nudity a possibility?
http://thesuperficial.com/2007/01/31...e-equus-05.jpg
Hagrid: Yea Harry! Get ye some blond Ginny!

Nah, I think Rowling knows all too well what criticism she'd get if she "pulls a Gandalf" with Dumbledore. Anyways, it's an important part of his character that he stays dead, as it's one of the things that seperate him from Voldemort - he doesn't fear death, and he accepts it as a natural part of life.

I can't remember where I read this, but I think she said in an interview that she'd changed her mind about killing Harry. She'd originally planned on doing it, but then everyone figured that out, so now Harry lives and two others die as a result, I think she said.

If anything, I bet that Sirius will be coming back. The circumstances of his death are just too suspicious, and if Harry does live, it's one of the few ways to give him a happy ending.

Those speculations on Dumbledore; he's got a portrait hasn't he? So they can at least communicate with him that way. I'd love it if Sirius did come back somehow. I'm not sure exactly how it could be done though, if he's not a ghost and he can't be called up in that mirror.

Well, Rowly seems just as deadset that Sirius is dead. Though that mirror he gave Harry does seem to play a part in this next book. Who knows. But if Regulus is actually still alive maybe he'll play a Siriusesque role in Harry's life.

Harry will have to have someone he works with, but it will likely be in a partnership role rather than a mentoring role. As the key protagonist nearing the end of an adventure, there can't be a fallback deus ex machina situation, if Rowling expects us to take it seriously. I hope the mirror has something to do with how things play out, but I don't think any incarnation of Dumbledore, Sirius, or Regulus will be playing mentor to Harry this time around.

And yes, full frontal nudity is expected in that play. It's part of the part. Good thing it isn't filmed or televised; the only leaked photos will be things that people get off their cell phones.

Drex you rascal. Did you remove my image above? BUT THERE WAS A HOT GIRL INVOLVED MAN.

I'm thinking that Hermione should get it. That way everyone will stop arguing about who should end up together. Unless Ron and Potter turn gay... O_o;;

I'm really looking forwards to this. I'm just lucky that its coming out after the semester is over and not during... I have way too much reading to do right now as it is! It would swallow up my school work!

I'm marking that day on my calander. I started reading the series around the time the fourth book came out because my son likes me to read to him before he goes to sleep. He requested me to read the first book to him, and the second and so on. I got so into them that I read them all a second time for myself. Since the fifth book came out, my son and I have gone to the midnight parties. Some bookstores do an awesome job and it is fun to buy a book at 2 AM!

OO: I never saw any image, nor did I remove it. You'd see a note at the bottom of your post, 'cuz only admins can stealth edit.

Been a reader since sixth grade. Can't wait for the thrilling conclusion. Unfortunatly, i can already say with confidence, that i will be working that night. Working at a summer camp sucks Harry Potter wise.

My only question, is Rowling gonna even bother trying to write anything else after HP is done? If she tries to create new characters or stories, they'd better live the hell up to HP if she wants to be taken seriously.

Mind you, those books could also sell really well, on account of it being J.K. Rowling who wrote them.

Maybe I should actually try reading these books instead of waiting for the movies to come out...

Yes, yes you should.

The movies do the books next to no justice.

I'm really torn between being ecstatic at the thought of another Harry Potter book and being completely and utterly depressed that there won't be anymore. *sigh* All good things must come to an end, I guess, but I'm seriously contemplating pulling a "Misery" on J.K. Rowling.

As is always the case, but the movies are less time consuming... (if you count the time actually spent processing the books contra the movies).

The movies haven't done any of the books hardly any justice so far, but I think they're getting better as they go along. They seem to be listening to the criticism and changing the movies accordingly, I think.

What's all this talk about a nude play now?

It is said that she's already working on some concepts for some other books, and that she will be putting them forth under a pen name. She doesn't (according to what I read) want to have the hype and build-up when she's not even going to be writing fantasy, at least for the first book. I can't remember if she said anything more specific, though. :/

As for a nude play, he's Daniel Radcliffe is in a production of Equus, a play about a teenage boy who ritually blinds horses, and the things that psychologically drive him to such actions. I think.

I disagree. I think the movies are getting progressively worse.

I only watch the movies to visually show what I have already read in the books. The later books are so long, that the movies cut so much out that it hardly makes any sense (sort of like the DaVinci Code movie)

I'm alittle sad that the books are coming to an end, but happy too, at least they will end before I get tired of them, like I did of the Series of Unfortunate Events.

I agree with you. The first movie was great, second movie was good, and it all went downhill from there. But I believe its because the books keep getting longer, and they cant fit everything into the standard 2 1/2 hour movie. They're supposed to be mostly for kids, and getting kids to sit that long doesnt work well. What they had for Goblet of Fire was great... but they left out so much of the book that it was disappointing.

I thought the first movie captured the feel of the books well. Its only been when they started trying to make them darker and edgier I thought they went downhill. And the casting for Lupin.

And Alan Rickman as Snape is possibly the best casting decision ever.

Yeah, the size of the books is definitely a problem with the later movies. They should just focus on the extra stuff for the DVDs like the LOTR DVDs did.

I really hope the throwdown beatdown Voldemort and Dumbledore is as awesome as in the book. I sense a really cheesy fight coming.

I'm really looking forward to the fifth book simply because they have to cut so much. Order of the Phoenix was so much longer than it should have been. I'm hoping they pull off a good interpretation so I can actually enjoy the storyline instead of being caught up in the length.

It's definately something I'm looking forward too. I only just read the 6th book.
July 21 it is.. It will be good.

Looks like I have a lot of catching up to do. I just recently finished the first book and started the second. Yeah, it's a little late in the game to be starting, but I just never got around to buying the books. And when my girlfriend mentioned that she had the first four, I decided to start reading them. I'm starting to see now what the fuss was all about. :)

I'd rather see THOSE pics then the pics of Daniel Radcliffe and the horse. My eyes are still bleeding...

Yeah, Hermione looks like a piece. Talk about jail bait though, fuck's sake. I wanna see this picture.

I got into the Potter books in prison; the library there had them. I was depressed as hell in 2004 and wanted something lighthearted to read. So I went through them and didn't realize I was addicted until the end of book four. That was around the time OOTP came out on paperback and I had Lenore send it to me. When book six came out on hardcover some of the teachers at the adult high school on site photo copied the entire book for anyone to read. That was cool. =O

If the picture's the one I'm thinking of, it's the one with her holding up the bottle of booze (many sites posted it as jail bait material, but it's likely you've seen it).

Is the bottle really there or was it added? How old is she nowadays?

If that was the Hermione pic, my answer is: No, I wouldn't go to jail for that.

I was expecting something a little more...

That's the only picture that I've ever come across that could fit that description, granted it isn't bad at all. It seems to be legit, and not very far-fetched at all, but I certainly can't confirm it's authenticity.

I just finished reading The Half-Blood Prince for the eighth odd time, and I'm still a damn mess. :(

e:
Bear in mind, she's English. Alcohol is not nearly as taboo in their culture.

Shit, that's right. I'll have to buy her a pint.

Eight fucking times? Any theories you want to share on the next book? lolies, didn't expect you to be an HP reader.

I try not to theorize too much. It makes the next book seem better starting off on a "clean slate". Still, though, I'm damn curious who R.A.B. could be. Sirius' brother is my best guess. =/

Are you interested in having that spoiled for you because there does seem to be a definite answer.

RABicle.

USE SPOILERS YOU USELESS GUATEMALTECO. :mad: :mad: :mad:

Haha I'm sorry. Anyhow, you really want the answer or you gonna save yourself? I wish I had. I remember once a fellow Star Wars fan spoiled a HUGE spoiler for the book Vector Prime for me. =/

FRODO LIVES

Saving myself. I was one of the victims of The Half-Blood Prince spoilage (you know the spoiler), and I'd rather not have a repeat of that. :)

I'm super excited about the 7th book coming out! I've already pre-ordered and everything (of course!) but I hope that she doesn't kill off Harry, although I do see that happening for the fact like everyone said that she doesn't want to be pressured to reprise the character...but like someone said, she should be strong enough where she can say no.

I wonder what her other books after Potter are going to be like.

Dumbledore is dead, she has said so herself when asked directly. There really is no point in arguing otherwise anymore. But, as was expected, he will be in the seventh book in some form, be it pensieve or portrait. She recently told Dan Radcliffe, "Well, yes [Dumbledore's dead]. But it's more complex than that." So all of you people who love Dumbledore don't have to worry, as you will get your fix, but don't expect him to be throwing goblins in between Harry and Voldemort any more.

As for Sirius and his mirror. Siruis's mirror shouldn't play any part in the next book at all, as Harry smashed it at the end of Order of the Phoenix when he realized that he could have used it to contact Sirius. I know your thinking that he could just whip out his wand and fix it right up again, but considering his state of mind when he broke it and the time that has passed since it broke, I doubt that the pieces remain there for him to fix it. One would think that once it has been broken, the magic within is lost. Kind of like the prophecy containers. Like Dumbledore, I wouldn't expect Sirius to be physically helping Harry out either. She killed him for a reason and bringing him back would add nothing.

However, the vail and the Department of Mysteries still holds great interest for me. I do believe that there is a strong possibility that Harry may need to go there to find information on obtaining/destroying horcruxes or to defeat Voldemort. The locked room with the "most powerful magic of all", which according to Dumbledore is the power of love, seems like it may be crucial to Harry's victory, seeing as he is vastly overpowered by Voldemort.

I hate what you say about Dumbledore but deep down I know it's true. THe thing I really loved about book six was learning about Voldemort and looking into the past. That feeling of discovery and I hope this one does that even if just a little.

Your Department of Mysteries angle and the love room sounds dead on and I never thought of that.

Deathly Hallows Cover Art is released.

http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/111...fulljy4.th.jpg

Very interesting. I absolutely love it. Voldemort looks exactly like how I always thought he should: Warped beyond human features, red eyes blazing.

Notice the shadows of the people in the background. Reminds me very much of the end of Goblet of Fire. At least we know that Harry and Voldemort won't be fighting their last battle in solitude. Also, notice how they are not holding any wands, which leads to me thinking that Harry will indeed need to try and find a way to harm Voldemort without his wand, per Goblet of Fire. I'm curious as to where they are dueling, too. Nowhere in any of the books has there been a coliseum.

This is entirely to bittersweet for me. Nothing left now to look forward to until the book. Suspense is killing me.

Sweet cover art! Need to make a wallpaper out of that.

I never cared about Harry Potter, but a lot of my firends are nuts for it.

One of them was in a line up for hours when the Half-Blood Prince came out. There was a party at the mall and huge spotlights at the Chapters book store. It was really a big event. Its pretty cool that all this hype is over a book, at least more kids are reading.

This contains spoilers. If you don't wish to be spoiled please leave immediately.

DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU DON'T LIKE SPOILERS.

The character who dies in Book 7 is...



http://encyclopediadramatica.com/ima...lerAlertDH.jpg

I remember reading the first book when I was in grade 5, and thinking that it wouldn't develop at all from there. Wow I was wrong. The next couple books were decent additions, but now it's just getting way to complicated and unecessary. I'll be glad when this whole series is done.

Fiddlegoof, you should edit your post.

Who bought the book?! Does it live up to your expectations?

I'm so buy it the first thing tomorrow.

Cool now I know what happened without having read the book :cool:

It's bloody brilliant.

First half: Most miserable pile of crap I've ever read by choice
Second half: Slightly corny, felt like a pile of internet guesses as to what might happen just randomly thrown together, but exciting.

Overall: 6/10. I put it as equivalent to The Scarlet Letter - everyone else will love it even though in my opinion it sucks. Grudgingly I'll declare it worth reading, but I can't say I love it as much as I did books 4-6.

Dude, NEVER put the brilliance of Hawthorne on the level of Harry Potter. The Scarlet Letter is as depressing as a poem by Plath.

I just got through it - AWESOME. And the ending, so clever...

Well, I finally read finished reading it. My only complaint about the final book was NOT the whinging I've been hearing from others of "fan-pleasing" - it is clear that Rowling planted the seeds very early and if anything her writing was successful in that it stimulated the imaginations of readers to devise possible theories.

Rather, my ONLY complaint about the book was that the middle portion could have done with the firm hand of an editor. It dragged on far longer than it had to, and...


That middle portion felt like such wasted time to make the book longer for the sake of being longer, when really it could have been cut down and been as effective... maybe even moreso, since the readers wouldn't have been bored to death during it (I literally fell asleep and dozed no less than 3 times while reading that segment... and it was the middle of the day!)

However, while the middle third of the book was disappointing, the final third, I thought, more than made for it. There was a return to Rowling in her regular form, and in the last 100 pages she finished very strongly. It's almost as if you can tell that the last portion is where Rowling truly focused her creative soul.



And I found the epilogue absolutely beautiful.

When I put the book down at the end, I felt the same bittersweet feeling that I usually get after I finish, say, a good RPG. When a tale finally comes to an end, and I say goodbye to the characters and world that I have become so attached to, there is always a sense of loss.... And when I feel this, I know it's my gut telling me overall I just experienced something wonderful, and that the vision of the creators has been successful.




Anyway, it's very late now, and I'm somewhat tired. Please excuse the slight rambling of the above post and any typos that may be there, but I am tired :p

I finished the book a bit ago. I'll avoid retreading the crucial events.

GOOD: The four or five chapters during which the opposing factions clashed. As it's the last book, it was enjoyable to see some of the more notable names in the canon reappear for one last hurrah. Even if their presence earned only a paragraph or two, it was better than having forgotten them at all.

I was also pleased by the willingness to kill off likable characters. The sacrifice felt a bit more authentic, as opposed to a one-sided routing of Evil.

BAD: The epilogue. Call me a completionist, but I'm interested in the fates of more than just the central three or four characters. There were enough classmates and supporters who played pivotal roles that it would've been worth noting how they managed to get on. I cannot be the only person with a curiosity as to what eventually becomes of Luna Lovegood or Ernie Macmillan.

Absolutely loved this book and was a brilliant end to the series in my mind. I loved it all. I especially enjoyed what she did with Neville in this one.

As for Harry's anger and angst


Crash: I'm with you on the epilogue being too short, I wanted to know more, and yeah, what was Luna doing these days (I sort of hope she's running The Quibbler now and it's gained something more of a mainstream following). That said, I don't think the epilogue was bad, it was a lovely little end to it all.

Top notch stuff.

Ditto that. Rowling should have made one more chapter before jumping ahead 19 years later. Like tell us the aftermath of the battle, the suvivors, casulties, the grief people felt from the death of loved ones...

I also wanna know what happens to Luna too, along with alot of students, teachers, friends and families etc.

Also wanna know what happens with Draco.

Also does Harry go back to finish his last year at Hogwarts? Does he become and Auror or something else? I want answers more than "He marries Ginny and has kids." cliche. These type of "having kids" ending drive me nuts, since its overused and doesn't tell much about the characters we actually give a damn about. I didn't really give two shits about their kids at all, a couple of pages can't tell me enough about them to make me care. I wanna know what happens to the set of characters we know deeply. The naming of them was also blah and cliche, with the only redeeming factor is

Then again, Snape was always awesome. God I can't wait to see Alan Rickman potraying Snape again now that the cat's out of the bag, he probably has more liberty to reveal abit more about Snape in the movies now.

So yeah, good book, but terrible epilogue.

I enjoyed the book, excellent way to end the series. My only real complaint was, again, the epilogue. She might as well not have written it, the book would probably be better without it. The only thing I really liked about it

Actually, for me, the epilogue and the kids aspect, I found that was very telling of the people Harry and co had become. There was a lot more to that little scene that merely "they had kids".

That they become caring people/parents that have moved on to odinary peaceful lives?

We already know they're kind and caring, and you don't need the cliche kids aspect to say that they moved on to the peaceful lives stuff. There are plenty of other scenarios they could have used to tell us this info, yet she chose to use a cliche one where the kids dominated the scene and dialouge, and barely find out what happens to the entire cast of characters. This is the last time I can see my fav characters again, and instead the last few pages are bombarded with drivels from these kids I don't give a shit about?

What did they end up with career wise? Where are they all living? Other than having kids and sending them to Hogwarts, what else is new? The epilogue didn't really tell us anything new cept they had kids, and

I'd put money on JK releasing a kind of encyclopedia for charity that'll detail all the goings on after the Battle of Hogwarts, what the characters are up to etc etc.

While I found HP7 to be about the best book of them all, I agree with you on the epilogue. It sorta felt like she had written it in 15 minutes and called it a day. Yeah, they were still friends and such 19 years after, but what about the society? I can't imagine that just because Voldy kicked the bucket everything's dandy.
I felt that the epilogue was superficial. I know that Harry forgave Snape, but what about the rest of the wizard community? Still a Death Eater in public opinion?
Argh. I really wish she had penned an extra chapter detailing such things. (Plus, I'm still curious about what Dudley saw when he was attacked by the Dementor...:eagletear: )

Snape was redeemed in the public eye by Harry's speech to Voldermort when he confronts him in Hogwarts.

He saw nothing. Dementors aren't visible to muggles.

Just because he didn't see the dementors themselves, doesn't mean that he didn't see something. After all, that is what dementors do. They make you relive your worst and most terrible memories.

Just like Harry relived the night his parents died when he was attacked in the Prisoner of Azkaban, Dudley had to "see" something that made him react the way he did. I too am curious as to what Dudley was so afraid of.

I could have sworn that she said we would find out. Maybe it's in there somewhere and I just didn't see it. I'll have to try and read it closer when I go through it a second time.

Also, agreeing with everyone about the ending. Harry, Hermione, Ginny and Ron are not the only characters that I care about. By the end of the book, their futures were obvious. I want to know about some of the characters whose futures were more ambiguous.

Notice that she didn't even really use Luna Lovegood in this book. Or Ernie Macmillan. Or Neville. Or Ron. The good chunk of the book was Harry and Hermione, wandering around and doing things.

When I first finished the book, I thought it was really good. Looking back at it, the book could have been a bit longer. For the character's she didn't kill off, she could have given them a bit more time. I mean, Luna Lovegood was a somewhat important character in Book Five. Dropped like a rock. She even sent Ron away for a couple chapters. Did she not want to write lines for him?

I thought the epilogue was even worse. She could have given a bit more or just not given us one. I would have actually preferred to have not an epilogue. All I got was that Ron and Hermione are married and so are Ron and Ginny. And they have kids and can't name them really well. (Hugo and everyone's already mentioned Albus Serverus). Nothing about what they do, which irked me the most. Rowling gave us a tease, which as everyone person with a functional sex organ knows, is far more terrible than nothing.

Although, killing characters left and right was a nice touch. Shows the abject cruelty of war. I don't know how they're going to make this movie PG-13. On one hand, I'd prefer to see a rated R version.

Overall, a decent way to close off the series, but I'd expected a bit more. The Deathly Hallows aspect felt a bit forced, but I enjoyed it more than I thought it was. However, the book felt like a really large collaborative fanfiction, picking up themes here and there.

Guys, mark your spoilers, or I'm going to have to label it on the thread title.

Or put your spoilers in the other Deathly Hallows thread because for some reason there are two.

Why not just go ahead and merge both, and label the thread as one containing spoilers?

A thought just came to me about Harry and why the dementors affected he more than other people (based on a revelation from book 7):

Just a thought I wanted to put out there.

I only have one thing to say about this book.

http://www.mugglenet.com/editorials/...wer/nt23.shtml

Thanks for the link. I don't usually read things like that, but glad to see I'm not the only one to have had that thought, even if I'm somewhat late to the party. ;)

On another note, I just read this comment from someone and to my mind makes a lot of sense (and also explains the importance of the Deathly Hallows):

Wonder when will Rowling start answering fan questions again on her site, I'm pretty sure there's alot we all wanna ask.

JK Rowling, in an interview with the Today Show, talked about the future professions of the characters after the events of the books:

Well at least she told us in one way or another... She should put these on her site as well though...

Thanks for the link!

One thing I missed out on: All the previous books had a fairly good recap of the previous happenings at the beginning, this one didn't really have much. It sprinkled things throughout the book, saying that Harry learned something "last year", but I missed getting a good recap. I haven't read HBP since the week it came out.

There was a little too much description of what was going on in the middle. I pretty much knew what she was going to write before she wrote it with regards to what happened whenever Harry and Hermione moved from place to place.

I totally agree here. Rowling seemed to go out of her way to set up this final group of six, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Luna, Ginny, and Neville. We get this inkling that they are all friends (well, 5 of them anyway) and that Harry likes naming kids after people he used to love. Well, that's great. But, seriously, for a 750 page book, after probably 3,000 pages and 7 books, I think a little more could have been put into the finale, if you're going to bother to have one.

And we even get those 5 people and only learn the profession of Neville? Give me a break.

I mean, consider what an important character Hogwarts was. I mean, they basically destroyed the entire thing in the final 150 pages...was it rebuilt? Exactly the same? Did they make new things? Do you use magic to rebuild a castle?

What about the older people in the book? Harry's only 46 or 47 at the end, so, surely, most everyone is still around. And how is the ministry run? Etc., etc.. I felt cheated at the end.

Her responses to all that she was shooting for “nebulous,” something “poetic.” She wanted the readers to feel as if they were looking at Platform 9¾ through the mist, unable to make out exactly who was there and who was not.

As from the link Stop Sign posted above.

Still, I say "meh" to that.

JK said she might be doing an "encyclopedia" with more details, donating the proceeds to charity. So maybe you'll get your fix. Apparently Dean had some great backstory that never came out.

Despite being a fan of detailed epilogues, I thought what she did was enough. You just get a little snapshot of what life is like after. Elegant. We don't need the details of the new laws on house elf reform or what happens to each and every character. I DO think one or two lines on Luna should've been sidled into the epilogue, though.

man....i hated snape for the longest time, but after this book, dang....he's awesome

I'm not the hugest fan or anything, but I won't be very happy if I have to pick up some encyclopedia to fill in the gaps that should have been in the books. Some bizarre reference-like book shouldn't be part of the canon.

I finished the book a few weeks ago after probably reading half of it in one night. I liked it, I didn't think the ending was amazing but I wouldn't say it was a bad ending. I agree with what's been said about the epilogue, it should've contained a bit more information other than 'hey look, they all shacked up and made babies'. Other than that, I personally loved the chapter that covered Snape's story, it made his death heart breaking; especially when he said "Look at me". And so much death! Saying that, I really thought one of the main 3 would die - so I was quite surprised that she didn't kill any of them off. Saying that I was quite surprised at the happy ending, but then I remembered that it is a childrens story essentially.

Overall, I liked it, it was an enjoyable read and a good ending. I'm just praying that there isn't a spin off series.

This just out: Dumbledore is gay.

I'm a little stunned, though it's not unsurprising that any author would say something about a major character after-the-fact that could cause an uproar. That Harry Potter's mentor and primary father-figure in the world is a homosexual will no doubt only be important to the adult readers, and the whiny-pants that are clinically opposed to homosexuality, especially homosexual parenting.

(And, no, I didn't see the thread in General Discussion. That one should be merged into this thread, IMO.)

Sort of brings a new light into what ol' Rita's been writing about Dumby and Harry, doesn't it? :D

On one hand, I like knowing more facts about our characters in the series. I just hope kids won't listen to their Homophobic parents....

But on the other hand, anyone bummed out that Rowling needs to do press conferences to shed more light into the characters? I still feel that book 7 would have been alot better if we also saw what was going on with the other characters, like maybe set in Neveille's point of view or something.

I feel that a good writer should be able to put more information and development into their final book, I'm sure fans won't care if its a little thicker if it means a better closure. I mean god, you don't find out crucial information like THIS big piece of news from DVD commentaries, do you? Some subtle language from let say, Dumbledore telling Harry why he and Grim had falling out would have hinted as to what his feelings were, instead we have to hear it through a news website.

And if you're going to go for vague epilouge, why destroy the fan's imaginations of what happened to their fav characters (fanfic though they may be) with more press conferences telling us what happended? You can't have it both ways. You either make it ambigous so we can imagine what happened to everyone, or you give us more details IN THE BOOK, not some after release commentary.

Anyone share similar feelings on this?