Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Jul. 21st, 2007 05:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cyphomandraWell.
This does indicate my startling ability to highlight exactly the wrong points in my previous capsule reviews, in that the Putter-Outer came back (albeit as the Deilluminator) and turned out to actually be mildly important, and the only bit that made me teary was, surprisingly, the death of Dobby. However. Sticking to my somewhat dubious guns, I liked this a lot – fast, dark, eventful – up until almost the end, until the bit where we go into Snape’s memories, and then I spent a lot of time being mildly irked and not as moved as I should have been; and then I got to the epilogue, and bounced out of the book entirely.
The beginning is probably the best yet – a farewell to the Durselys, with an actual connection between Harry and Dudley (I did like Harry calling him Big D), and then the escape plan with multiple Potters that went wrong almost immediately, and the suspense of Harry’s wait at the burrow while the others arrived, or failed to do so. Some of this went with the wedding preparations (why? Why have such an elaborate wedding at this time, other than because it’s about the only cheerful set-piece this book is going to get?), but things quickly got going again, and the arrival of Kingsley’s Patronus with its announcement was deeply disturbing, and just right.
I liked all the Ministry conspiracy stuff, and their eventual infiltration in an attempt to get the Horcrux (and it would be Umbridge who’d picked it up). I liked Harry, Ron and Hermione being the core cast again, and the problems as they attempted to cope with hiding and searching, the tensions between them, their lack of knowledge as to what was going on and their fears about the others (I would have liked one of the deaths to happen her, actually, and although you do get a few minor character deaths it would have been interesting to see Tonks, say, being killed in this time period). I did get a bit tired of the whole Harry is obsessed with something while everyone else thinks he’s overreacting (enough for me with Draco in HBP), and I did have to open up HBP at Dumbledore’s list of Horcruxes to remind myself of what they all were again. Liked the living rough sequences. although I think Ron’s departure should have had worse consequences, and liked the mysterious doe Patronus interesting. And then the trio’s capture, with their identities being discovered just when you think they might get away with it, and being taken to the Malfoys – and Hermione being tortured by Bellatrix. I would have been on the edge of my seat had I not already moved to the floor.
So much stuff came back from the earlier books – Gringotts, Grindewald, Ollivander, various Death Eaters, Krum, Petunia and Lily, Kreacher (oh, man, I actually felt sorry for him over the Regulus story)… it did feel like so many things snapping shut and falling into place, and I do admire JK Rowling for pulling this part of it off.
Their breaking back into Hogwarts (and the barman being Aberforth! Of course his Patronus is a goat) was great, and I was thrilled to see Neville again, and the attack (with raiding Death Eaters) and Voldemort returning in the background was all great, right down to the fire in the Room of Requirement (although – suddenly all the good guys ar using Unforgiveables? Hmm). And then through to the Shack, and Snape’s death – and his memories.
Someone else commented that this explained Snape’s worst memory – not being tormented by the Marauders, but calling Lily a Mudblood and losing her forever, which works for me. My problems with this section, tho’, was feeling like I’d read so much of it before in fan fiction (which is hardly JK Rowling’s fault) and then the reveal that Dumbledore has been grooming Harry not for life, but for death. I was pretty much with Snape on this – what a horrible thing to do! – but Harry seems to think that it’s all been appropriate, that he has no chance anyway, and heads off to sacrifice himself in a very passive manner and end up in the Kings’ Cross station version of the afterlife, with a twinkly approving Dumbledore. Arggh. This is where the book lost me, because what Dumbledore has done is horrible, making Harry into a sacrifice without his consent, and if he goes along at the end it’s because Dumbledore has taken all other choices away from him. And then he meets up with Dumbledore and doesn’t yell at him once, and it’s all gone-before mentor guy approves and sends valiant hero back to the world of the living, and it’s all wrong, wrong, and I wanted Harry to shout, to act for himself for once, and to show that he deserved life rather than just playing dead.
I did like it when Neville killed Nagini, though. And then it’s dragging out the corpses, and ending it all, and a nineteen year later epilogue (why nineteen? Because giving me Dark Tower flashbacks is not helping, and the whole “All was well” thing makes me think everything is just about to fall apart again in the, oh please no, inevitable 7 book series sequel starring everybody’s children) where there are far too many children with dead people’s names, and although I do like Albus Severus it feels like far too much wish fulfilment, far too unreal, and far, far too easy. Who’s running the wizarding world? What impact did all this have? I didn’t want another off-to-school scene at King’s Cross, where nothing’s changed; I wanted recognition of what was lost.
I said that Dobby’s death was the only one that really touched me, and it was. Mad Eye never did much for me, I did miss Hedwig, I was mildly upset over Fred (but really, they were never going to get the whole Weasley family through, and at least Percy – who I like more than the twins – came back) and Remus and Tonks? I was strangely unmoved. Tonks started out as an interesting character and then deteriorated into wimpy female who loses her powers by suffering unrequited love, and Remus (who also started out very cool) was behaving so oddly in this I was wondering if he were going to turn out to be a spy. None of the characters I was worried about (Hermione, Ron, Hagrid, Neville, pretty much, as I was resigned to losing Snape) died. I should be glad about that, but I'd rather have lost one of them than gained that souless epilogue. I don't have a clear idea of what I wanted to have happen instead, but I did want to feel loss at the end... and I didn't.
This does indicate my startling ability to highlight exactly the wrong points in my previous capsule reviews, in that the Putter-Outer came back (albeit as the Deilluminator) and turned out to actually be mildly important, and the only bit that made me teary was, surprisingly, the death of Dobby. However. Sticking to my somewhat dubious guns, I liked this a lot – fast, dark, eventful – up until almost the end, until the bit where we go into Snape’s memories, and then I spent a lot of time being mildly irked and not as moved as I should have been; and then I got to the epilogue, and bounced out of the book entirely.
The beginning is probably the best yet – a farewell to the Durselys, with an actual connection between Harry and Dudley (I did like Harry calling him Big D), and then the escape plan with multiple Potters that went wrong almost immediately, and the suspense of Harry’s wait at the burrow while the others arrived, or failed to do so. Some of this went with the wedding preparations (why? Why have such an elaborate wedding at this time, other than because it’s about the only cheerful set-piece this book is going to get?), but things quickly got going again, and the arrival of Kingsley’s Patronus with its announcement was deeply disturbing, and just right.
I liked all the Ministry conspiracy stuff, and their eventual infiltration in an attempt to get the Horcrux (and it would be Umbridge who’d picked it up). I liked Harry, Ron and Hermione being the core cast again, and the problems as they attempted to cope with hiding and searching, the tensions between them, their lack of knowledge as to what was going on and their fears about the others (I would have liked one of the deaths to happen her, actually, and although you do get a few minor character deaths it would have been interesting to see Tonks, say, being killed in this time period). I did get a bit tired of the whole Harry is obsessed with something while everyone else thinks he’s overreacting (enough for me with Draco in HBP), and I did have to open up HBP at Dumbledore’s list of Horcruxes to remind myself of what they all were again. Liked the living rough sequences. although I think Ron’s departure should have had worse consequences, and liked the mysterious doe Patronus interesting. And then the trio’s capture, with their identities being discovered just when you think they might get away with it, and being taken to the Malfoys – and Hermione being tortured by Bellatrix. I would have been on the edge of my seat had I not already moved to the floor.
So much stuff came back from the earlier books – Gringotts, Grindewald, Ollivander, various Death Eaters, Krum, Petunia and Lily, Kreacher (oh, man, I actually felt sorry for him over the Regulus story)… it did feel like so many things snapping shut and falling into place, and I do admire JK Rowling for pulling this part of it off.
Their breaking back into Hogwarts (and the barman being Aberforth! Of course his Patronus is a goat) was great, and I was thrilled to see Neville again, and the attack (with raiding Death Eaters) and Voldemort returning in the background was all great, right down to the fire in the Room of Requirement (although – suddenly all the good guys ar using Unforgiveables? Hmm). And then through to the Shack, and Snape’s death – and his memories.
Someone else commented that this explained Snape’s worst memory – not being tormented by the Marauders, but calling Lily a Mudblood and losing her forever, which works for me. My problems with this section, tho’, was feeling like I’d read so much of it before in fan fiction (which is hardly JK Rowling’s fault) and then the reveal that Dumbledore has been grooming Harry not for life, but for death. I was pretty much with Snape on this – what a horrible thing to do! – but Harry seems to think that it’s all been appropriate, that he has no chance anyway, and heads off to sacrifice himself in a very passive manner and end up in the Kings’ Cross station version of the afterlife, with a twinkly approving Dumbledore. Arggh. This is where the book lost me, because what Dumbledore has done is horrible, making Harry into a sacrifice without his consent, and if he goes along at the end it’s because Dumbledore has taken all other choices away from him. And then he meets up with Dumbledore and doesn’t yell at him once, and it’s all gone-before mentor guy approves and sends valiant hero back to the world of the living, and it’s all wrong, wrong, and I wanted Harry to shout, to act for himself for once, and to show that he deserved life rather than just playing dead.
I did like it when Neville killed Nagini, though. And then it’s dragging out the corpses, and ending it all, and a nineteen year later epilogue (why nineteen? Because giving me Dark Tower flashbacks is not helping, and the whole “All was well” thing makes me think everything is just about to fall apart again in the, oh please no, inevitable 7 book series sequel starring everybody’s children) where there are far too many children with dead people’s names, and although I do like Albus Severus it feels like far too much wish fulfilment, far too unreal, and far, far too easy. Who’s running the wizarding world? What impact did all this have? I didn’t want another off-to-school scene at King’s Cross, where nothing’s changed; I wanted recognition of what was lost.
I said that Dobby’s death was the only one that really touched me, and it was. Mad Eye never did much for me, I did miss Hedwig, I was mildly upset over Fred (but really, they were never going to get the whole Weasley family through, and at least Percy – who I like more than the twins – came back) and Remus and Tonks? I was strangely unmoved. Tonks started out as an interesting character and then deteriorated into wimpy female who loses her powers by suffering unrequited love, and Remus (who also started out very cool) was behaving so oddly in this I was wondering if he were going to turn out to be a spy. None of the characters I was worried about (Hermione, Ron, Hagrid, Neville, pretty much, as I was resigned to losing Snape) died. I should be glad about that, but I'd rather have lost one of them than gained that souless epilogue. I don't have a clear idea of what I wanted to have happen instead, but I did want to feel loss at the end... and I didn't.
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Date: 2007-07-23 02:08 am (UTC)Well...yeah, but he's an orchestrator. It's what orchestrators do. Deth handing Morgon over to be tortured by Ghisteslwchlohm for a solid year so he could learn the right kind of magic to become the new High One, and taking away all of his choices, and indenting from the outset to make Morgon kill him in order to enable the transfer of land-law from the old High One to the new, wasn't exactly nice either. Nor was Nysander setting Seregil up to murder him. Being an orchestrator means being the person who can do the absolutely appalling in the knowledge that if you don't have the guts to at least try, then the world will end. It's a hard game, because it's not a question of theory. Orchestrator characters don't get to throw away a world full of people for the sake of one life and a clear conscience...
I don't like Dumbledore much now, but do I have a lot of respect for him.
there are far too many children with dead people’s names
Gah. Yes. Could someone please tell Rowling that not every child in the world is named after someone?
I'd rather have lost one of them than gained that souless epilogue
Me, too. Or even all of them...
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Date: 2007-07-23 11:18 am (UTC)But back to Rowling - partly, I don't think Dumbledore's plan (apart from having himself killed by Snape) was all that good. How long has he been looking for the Horcruxes? (or even known about them - is getting Harry to get Slughorn's memory in HBP for Harry's purposes or his own?) And then he goes and stuffs up deactivating the first one he finds. And again, except for his death, I never felt like he was really manipulating the layers of real and perceived truth - more just not telling people stuff until the plot made it inevitable.
Mainly, though, it was how Harry just accepted Dumbledore's plan - I mean, yes, be an orchestrator, but part of making the hard decisions is accepting what this will do to people you love, and this includes their opinions of you. In that afterlife sequence Harry's still looking for approval and explanations from someone who has lied to him and set him up for death, and Harry - and Rowling - don't seem to see this as remotely problematic.
And hey! Not Neville!!