Okay, just jumping in since I just finished HPatDH about half an hour ago. One comment, though, as I begin to read the thread:
zonhin wrote:
I read this series fanatically up until about number 6 or so. I just couldn't get pass chapter 1 or 2 because I was bored out of my mind. I have no idea why. I loved it before then.
Book six was until recently (approximately a half hour ago) my favorite book in the series, but I have the same feeling about its beginning as zonhin. I think I know why: it's the only book in the series with
two non-Harry POV chapters to start with. Books 4 and 7 start with one such chapter a piece, and the rest start right off with our mostly-likable hero.
calamarain wrote:
It was very good, though the epilogue was disappointing - it kinda read massively like fanfic. But the book had some amazingly cool scenes.
Here's my AOL for this post. (I also AOL the rest of that post too.)
Mattcrampy wrote:
I've noticed that Rowling tends to take a very different approach to most authors: unlike most authors, who tend to start off with generic characters and lay on characteristics, most of her secondary characters start out as caricatures and become more nuanced as time goes on, which is a interesting way to do things, and I guess it suits a larger-than-life sort of story. I can see how it would rub people up the wrong way.
IMHO I think this technique works particularly well in a children's fiction book.
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×Doom wrote:
First of all, the phase where the heroes were camping all around the world doing nothing lasted too long, and at some point I started to think, is this what the author did to get more length for the book? It dragged a while after that note, but fortunately started to improve again towards the end.
Hmm. Interesting. I actually think this sequence is one of my favorite in the series. Not sure why. Maybe I just felt like we were finally on a real quest and not doing quests in our spare times between homework. And maybe the chapters felt like all those chapters in books like
The Hobbit where the party travels and camps for days in the middle of the rain or in the darkness of the forest and so on, and thus felt somewhat familiar to me. Ah, well. It's not unusual for different people to like different things in the same work of art.
My own thoughts (contains spoilers, but you're reading this thread so I guess you don't care):
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×I actually had it spoiled for me that Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny survive because if I was going to be totally mad at the book I wanted to be mad out of the gate and get it over with. Nevertheless and notwithstanding I knew Harry lived, I still cried when I found out he had to die. (Yes, I'm a guy and I cry over some books -- sometimes it's part of the fun of the book.)
Incidentally, did anyone else notice that one way or another each Horcrux was destroyed by a different person? The list, in case you missed it:
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×
Diary: Harry (thusly starting the fashion)
Ring: Dumbledore
Locket: Ron
Cup: Hermione
Diadem: Crabbe
Harry: Riddle
Snake: Neville
(although Voldemort does get a bit of a double dip by doing himself in.)
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I was charged with conspiracy to commit jay-walking, and accessory to changing lanes without signaling after the fact
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++Adam H. Peterson