(no subject)

[rusty_halo]

Just finished the latest Harry Potter. (I got it on Sunday night at the Comic Con dealer room, but I didn't get a chance to really start reading it until Monday. I was stuck on planes all day, so I got through most of it, and finished the rest today on my lunch break.) I haven't read anyone else's reactions yet--though if there are good ones out there, please recommend them to me.

I really liked it. I'm so glad that we got payoff, finally, for threads that have been building for ages: Ron/Hermione, Harry/Ginny, Snape's motivations, Draco's layers, etc. I particularly loved getting Voldemort's history, and find him fascinating, though I wish he'd been a bit more layered as a child. I think it would be much more interesting if he'd had redeeming qualities originally, but chose to abandon them in pursuit of evil, rather than him just being a nasty little sociopath all along.

I loved Malfoy and his mother finally being portrayed with some complexity. I liked Malfoy having to make a choice and pretty much choosing not to kill Dumbledore. I'm always irritated by how one-dimensional Malfoy has been--and I think that has a lot to do with the fact that it's Harry who is perceiving him. Harry isn't always right--he tends to be rash and clueless and judgmental about other people. I like that this is clearly Harry's point of view, not an ultimate truth.

I also loved that Harry was sort of tricked (by not knowing who the Half-Blood Prince was) into appreciating Snape's creativity and intelligence. Funnily enough, because I'm not much of a Snape fan (Sirius fan, here), but I never doubted for a second that Snape was acting on Dumbledore's orders all along. I still think Snape's a good guy. Dumbledore wanted Snape to maintain his cover, and he wanted to protect Malfoy, and he knew that he was probably already done for, and so he asked Snape to kill him. And Snape complied even though he didn't want to--just as Dumbledore asked Harry to obey him no matter what, and Harry did. (Interesting paralleling of Harry and Snape throughout the book.)

I've never been a Dumbledore fan. I find his assumption of his own superiority, and his thoughtless failure to keep others informed about that which is incredibly relevant to them, to be irritatingly arrogant. I know that he doesn't mean it on purpose, but it's still annoying. And I think his encouragement that his followers be blindly devoted to him is utterly foolish--blind devotion to *anything* is foolish. So, yeah, I was kind of glad that he died--it was quite obvious from the start that it would happen in this book, so I felt no shock or particular interest. I'm glad that Harry will now have to stand on his own without a protector hovering over him.

I'm guessing that R.A.B. is Regulus Black. Is that plausible? I can't remember much about him, but he was conspicuously mentioned at the beginning of this book, wasn't he?

What was stupid: Harry and Ginny's pointless breakup (Harry reminded me of Angel, or Duncan MacLeod, stupid noble bullshit), Remus and Tonks (Remus is so NOT heterosexual, and how incredibly pathetic is Tonks?).

So yeah, these are just initial reactions. I'm going to read other people's reactions, and read the book again. But overall I'm very happy with this one.

Comments

[aea]

I agree with what you said about Malfoy finally having some layers and Snape still on the side of good. I don't think Harry realizes how much Snape has going on in his life, how dangerous it is to doublecross Voldemort. I hope Snape doesn't die in the next book.