Harry Potter - WARNING THIS THREAD CONTAINS SPOILERS.

[lordtodd75]

The last book was awesome! Discuss.

[shardian]

Nooo!! I'm only 200 pages into it. Mods PH this thread immediately!

[Ed_McCarron]

Got the book at 5 pm on Saturday.  Finished it at 3 am that night.

Liked it.  The best of the last 4.

Oh, Shardian...


























The butler did it.

[lordtodd75]

I hate to spoil it for you but Dobby kills everyone 

[shardian]

So far, it is definitely kicking ass. Books 5 & 6 were okay, but not as good as the previous ones IMO. I am outtie on this thread!

[shardian]

I am excited to hear it was a good ending though.

[Nannuu]

SPOILERS!

Oh it ruled!  Best book of the series I thought.  She sure knows how to write.  Molly whipping Bellatrix was friggin awesome.  Neville hacking the Nagini's head off kicked @ss.  Harry ripping V a new ahole with the Hallows wand was great even though it was a single spell, the lead up to it made it totally worth it.  Dumbledore's backstory was just plain cool.  Neville's underground movement was a nice touch.  Harry finally using Crucio on someone, yeah yeah.  Ron talking parsaltongue was funny.  Snape's super good guy story finally coming out was great (I always thought he was a godo guy).  Nagini popping out of the old woman was some coolness.  Voldemort flying all over was just cool.  Escaping on the dragon was awesome.  Harry's children's names were really cool to see he finally recognized Snape for what he was.  Yeah, pretty much the whole book was awesome.
I only wish Dudley had shown up at platform 9 3/4 with his wizard child, that would have been a nice touch.
Also, too bad Draco was still a --cream-filled twinkie-- even with Harry saving his butt multiple times.

[Jouster]

So I guess I'm the only one here that only reads stuff on BYOAC?  I have not time to read anything else...too much arcade goodness to absorb!

Jouster

[AtomSmasher]

So I guess I'm the only one here that only reads stuff on BYOAC?  I have not time to read anything else...too much arcade goodness to absorb!

Jouster

I'm generally the same way, the only other time I do any real reading is when I'm sitting on the can.  Although I did just purchase Atlas Shrugged which will be my first real book I've read in a while, so don't ruin the ending for me.   

[Jouster]

I'm generally the same way, the only other time I do any real reading is when I'm sitting on the can.

I thought that's what portable gaming was invented for...I have my old gameboy and PPC for those times.  No time to read when there are games to be played.

Jouster

[lordtodd75]

Spoilers...............................











































They really got me with Harry's death. I really did think he was gone for good. I figured the next 2 chapters would be the rest of his supporters
destroying voldemort and his army. I am glad I was wrong, when I read the part about him having to die and then the following 10 pages of him preparing for his death I was overwhelmed with emotion, I felt like I was loosing a son. I am also glad that twot bellatrix got it in the end. JK Rowling did a good job of making people hate her.

[jcroach]

Loved it.  I've basically spent every free moment reading it. My wife has been really annoyed with me the last couple of days. Stayed up till midnight last night to finish. I'm going to be dragging at work today. (or is it dragon.....

I didn't like the epilogue at all.  Too neat and tidy.  I like my endings a little more ambiguous. 

Dobby's burial was the best scene in the book.  Nearly had me in tears.  And the scenes after that was Griphook was good too.

She tied up almost all of the lose ends.  I know some fans wanted to know more minutia about the world, and Harry's life, but most of that wasn't important to the plot. I did really want to know what Dumbledore really saw in the Mirror of Erised. That wasn't explained.

I was really shocked to see Harry utilize two of the three unforgivable curses.  His first try at The Killing Curse didn't work in Half Blood Prince.

[Havok]

All I think of when I hear Harry Potter is Lindsey Lohan in the SNL skit...

Sweet!

[Jouster]

Yeah...that was some of her best work.

Jouster

[lokki]

I didn't like the epilogue at all.  Too neat and tidy.  I like my endings a little more ambiguous. 

Loved the whole book read it in record time. Pretty much non stop action on this one, I too did did not like the epiloge. since it was placed to far into the future. I would have rather have seen a 2 years later kind of thing VS the 19 years later.

[SirPeale]

Thing is, I don't think there was a lot to tell from two years later.  After Voldermolt's fall Harry hadn't felt even a twinge from his scar in 19 years.  I don't imagine everything was all sunshine and roses, but I do imagine things were 'normal.'  As normal as a wizards life can get, anyway.

[mrbigggshot]

I was pretty amazed at the sheer number of characters that died.  It was weird since in books 1 - 6 everyone just happens to survive, now everyone just happens to die.

I also did not like the last chapter.  Too big of a jump in time, she pretty much skipped over the aftermath of the war.

[CCM]

I've never read a Harry Potter book and I've only seen the first movie.  With all the buzz I may have to read the books.

 I generally read fantasy adventure, RA Salvatore, Robert Jordan, David Eddings, Steven Erikson, etc...  How do the Potter books stack up to these authors?  I've always thought of Harry Potter as kid's books.

[xar256]

Do yourself a favor and read the books.  The movies don't do the series justice, and are getting worse as the series moves on.  Me and my wife were quite irritated by the last movie.  They aren't just dropping parts of the book to make it fit the 2.5 hour time window, but they are changing a LOT of details that really don't need to be(and shouldn't be) changed. 

 
 
<edit>  The books on tape are really well done too, if you don't have time to read these books thoroughly.  The reader (Jim Dale) does awsome work with the series.  It's great to listen to the book while working on other projects.

[jcroach]

I was pretty amazed at the sheer number of characters that died.  It was weird since in books 1 - 6 everyone just happens to survive, now everyone just happens to die.

I knew there would be a lot of deaths when Hedwig died.  It seemed to be ominous.

[Nannuu]

I've never read a Harry Potter book and I've only seen the first movie.  With all the buzz I may have to read the books.

 I generally read fantasy adventure, RA Salvatore, Robert Jordan, David Eddings, Steven Erikson, etc...  How do the Potter books stack up to these authors?  I've always thought of Harry Potter as kid's books.

Salvatore was my favorite until I started reading Potter.  The first couple may be a bit kiddish but they get better.....much better.  You really have to read them to know all of the characters for later.

[danny_galaga]

take it to the knitting forum, ya bunch a girls!

[saint]

Just finished it myself (wife got to read it first, darnit!), and I have to say simply smashing. Frigging outstanding. One of the best and most satisfying ending to a series of any kind ever. I even liked the epilogue. Fracking brilliant I say. I'm very sad that I don't have any more of it to read now....

[jbox]

I haven't read it, but since everybody around me will I took the liberty of finding out what happens. Can someone explain something to me?

You have a snake. While that snake is safe you are immortal. You can make a shield around that snake that makes it almost impossible to kill. So, gee, maybe I'll just take the shield off my snake and travel to the one place on Earth full of kids too stupid not to know I'm unbeatable? WTF?!?

[SirPeale]

I'm very sad that I don't have any more of it to read now....

I was very reluctant to read the last book because of that.  There will never be more.

[Havok]

This thread just keeps me thinking about...

Edit by saint to fix hotlinking picture

[Glaine]

take it to the knitting forum, ya bunch a girls!

Quoted for truth. Potter is teh weak sauce.

[shardian]

I finished it and LOVED it. Definitely the best book of the series, probably one of the best books I've ever read. Yes, the epilogue was a little strange, but still a nice touch. I figure Rowling is done with Harry Potter, but FAR from done writing about the wizarding world.

As to Voldemort releasing the snake after Harry was supposedly dead, according to the prophecy he was safe after Harry was dead. Of course he could now let the snake loose. He also had the fatal flaw of being so cocky that he thought no one could touch him.

[shardian]

Just saw this story over on cnn.com Apparently Rowling did a Q&A recently where she discusses what the characters in the novels did after the conclusion of book 7. I, along with many people, didn't find the last chapter to be as much "closure" as I would have liked. This info definitely helps fill in the blanks.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/books/07/30/potters.afterlife.ap/index.html

[shmokes]

I thought it was the strongest book of the series.  It took balls to kill Dumbledor in the last book, and I think she spent a lot of her credit.  She owed her readers a lot after that and I think she delivered.  I did find myself getting irritated with the long-winded inner struggle Harry was having about Dumbledor's flirtation with the dark arts based on something Skeeter wrote.  I also (and this applies to earlier books as well) tired of the good guys using nothing but stunning spells over and over and over and over and over.  How many people does Bellatrix have to murder before you think to yourself, "Ya know, maybe we need to put this lady out of commission permanently if we don't want to continue losing loved ones to her hands."

My wife and I read the book together.  I do all the reading for the most part because my voice never gets tired, but she can't go more than half an hour or so.  It was a fun read.  We had guessed that Harry was a horcrux, and I suggested that was the real reason Voldemort couldn't kill him -- because only Basalisk venom and super-fire or whatever it was called, can destroy horcruxes . . . but then we counted them up and they were all accounted for so we dismissed that suggestion.  I also guessed that Snape was the actual master of the elder wand before Voldemort had even taken it out of Dumbledor's hands, but the Malfoy business never even began to occur to me (though, I question why the elder wand would give its allegiance away simply because another wand was won from its master.  But . . . it's her world, and it made for a great twist.  It made for a believable and satisfying final showdown too -- I always wondered how the hell she was going to pull off having Harry beat Voldemort when, up to the end of book 6, his magical skills were absolutely pathetic.  I still wonder where all the adults learn all their fantastic magic in the books.  It ain't at Hogwarts.  By the time kids graduate from Hogwarts they can't do much besides making light shine out the tip of their wands and fetching things from across the room.

Anyway, really good book.  I'm excited to see what's next out of her.  BTW, if you want something kind of along the same lines you should check out the Artemis Fowl series.  Really good stuff.

[shmokes]

I thought the BS with Neville getting the sword was fine.  The first time Harry got the sword was from the sorting hat when he was fighting the Basalisk, so it obviously has the power to fetch the sword.  And as far as I'm concerned, Griphook broke his end of the bargain and lost his right to the sword when he ran out of the vault and tried to get Harry and company apprehended by the other goblins.

[shardian]

I kind of figured Neville would figure into the defeat of Voldemort a few books ago. He also lost his parents to death eaters (well for the most part). I wondered for a while if the prophecy was actually directed at him.

The other day, I was following along with the wife in her book. At the point when Lupin shows up at Grimauld Place, they all start throwing around Voldemorts name like it is going out of style. Having read the book already, I realized the major plot hole this exposed. If you remember, there was a curse on the name, which was how Harry was found twice - even thru all their tent protections. How come the death eaters didn't beat down the door at that? They were already standing outside observing, so that excuse don't fly.

[shmokes]

I don't believe the taboo was placed on his name until after Ron deserted them.  Wait . . . I take that back.  The taboo was how they were found in London just after ditching the wedding.  Maybe you're right.  However, they were inside the home which had all kinds of protections.  When Harry was found in his tent they had, for some reason, not cast the protective charms, IIRC.  It seems like they immediately jumped up to cast them, but were too late.  My guess is that they just had no way of knowing what was going on inside that home cos of all of Dumbledor's magic.

[shardian]

I don't believe the taboo was placed on his name until after Ron deserted them.  Wait . . . I take that back.  The taboo was how they were found in London just after ditching the wedding.  Maybe you're right.  However, they were inside the home which had all kinds of protections.  When Harry was found in his tent they had, for some reason, not cast the protective charms, IIRC.  It seems like they immediately jumped up to cast them, but were too late.  My guess is that they just had no way of knowing what was going on inside that home cos of all of Dumbledor's magic.

I believe they did have the protections on their tent, but they broke as soon as the bad dudes showed up.

[shardian]

On a side note, now we know how Todd is always first on site when a Chick  says something naughty on Scrubs - he is a wizard that knows how to cast taboos! 

[Samstag]

Seems like a stretch to sell me a story that Voldemort was confident he was the only one who ever found the room of requirement....where he hid the diadem among thousands upon thousands of items other people left there.  I'm not buying it.  Oh, wait.  Maybe the room was full of love, which would have rendered all that obviousness invisible to him, because he was way too evil to have a tiny bit of common sense.

Other than that, it was better than the rest of the series.  Still way too much teen angst, though.

[shmokes]

Love.  that ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---'s hilarious.  I was always annoyed by the love angle.  I said the same thing to my wife about the room of requirement being filled to overflowing with other people's things.