Rowling, JK - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

[oyceter]

I miss reading long fat series. Long, fat books are good, but there's something about the development of a series that I love. Unfortunately, since they take so much investment, I rarely start new ones unless they are highly, highly recommended, especially in the fantasy book arena. I've been burned out by too many Robert Jordan-esque ones. Instead, usually I get my series kicks from TV shows and manga and anime now.

So I am glad that I have this long fat series to return to, at least for one more book. I enjoy watching Rowling build more into her world with each book, and I like the fact that she doesn't forget spells and magical gadgets from older books. It makes the world feel deeper and more real. And now that Harry is sixteen, as opposed to eleven, I am sympathizing with him much more than before.

I think this may be my favorite HP now. The prior favorite was PoA, because I adore backstory, but this one has even more backstory! Tragedy! Angst! Brave!Harry! How could I resist?

Part of the non-annoyance can probably be attributed to Harry being treated as an adult by most people. This is, I think, the first book in which school is much less of a concern, despite a concern with grades and classes. The new DADA and potions teachers, while significant, aren't major players in the plot per se. Slughorn's memory is important, but to the battle against Voldemort. Slughorn himself isn't as influential in the class, nor is Snape. I think this is actually one of the first books in which I don't particularly remember what is going on in the classrooms, unlike the others.

A great deal of this is because of Dumbledore's taking Harry in; the stress is now on finding out Voldemort's past and how it influences the present, rather than on OWLs and careers and which house is beating which. Even Quidditch becomes so much less of a concern that Harry doesn't even make the final match.

While I liked seeing more on Voldemort's past, I didn't particularly like the sense that I got of Voldemort/Tom Riddle being unsavably evil. Dumbledore distrusts him from the very beginning, and even though Tom Riddle is very human, he is always portrayed as evil and cruel, with no real redeeming virtues. This was particularly disappointing given the continued greying of the HP universe. I remain glad that Hermione's sympathy for the house-elves remains in full force and that it is vindicated by Dumbledore, especially given how much she was teased for it in GoF. I am also enjoying the political bent of the books. Most fantasies to me seem to be not all that concerned with government and politics (with a few notable exceptions -- Lloyd Alexander's Westmark trilogy, Freedom and Necessity), especially since most fantasies tend to take place in that hand-wavy pseudo-medieval world of kingdoms and kings. I like that the HP-verse has a government and that said government communicates with the Muggle government.

Rowling raises even more questions on the Ministry of Magic in this book; while Fudge was criminally negligent, Scrimgouer (sp?) isn't much better. I'm not sure if the parallels are clearly to 9/11 or a post 9/11 world, but they are very rooted in the same concerns that I think all wartime governments are subject to. How does one reinforce security without compromising civil rights? And I liked that the new minister wasn't as personally influenced as Fudge was (if the Dumbledore-jealousy bits were true), but still not of the good.

Felt a little sorry for Draco, but not much, actually. I do think that he wouldn't have killed Dumbledore in any case, but it still rather doesn't trump the teasing and calling of Mudblood for me. Although I suppose the thing is that I feel bad for anyone trying to obey Voldemort or the like, because as Rowling made it quite clear, Voldemort really isn't the one for companions.

While I like Ginny and don't particularly mind the Ginny-Harry romance, I did feel that it was really coming out of nowhere. All of a sudden, Harry sees her snogging Dean Thomas and gets immensely jealous. It probably would have worked a little better if there had been just a tad more interaction in OotP, at the very least. Oh well. I don't particularly think writing subtle character development or emotional growth is Rowling's strength, and I am duly entertained by the world, so I shan't quibble.

That said, I will be sorely disappointed if Snape turns out to be evil all along, not just because I like the character, but because I think Rowling does need a character who is personally nasty and yet always on the side of good. Also, narratively, it's just much less interesting.

While I'm glad that she did kill off Dumbledore (it's been coming for a while, given the whole death of the protector/mentor type thing in YA books), I'm still sad that it means the end of an era! Not just to me, but to the characters. Hogwarts without Dumbledore seems such a strange notion, and of course Harry and Ron and Hermione and probably most people won't even be going back to school the next year. This makes me sad, even though it means the big battle against Voldemort is now going in full force and the world is getting darker.

I am a bit hesitant about the Horcruxes -- while it does give Harry an easy way to kill off Voldemort (well, sort of), it feels too much like the quest fantasy standard, and I am rather afraid that the seventh book will be a little boring because of it. Oh well. Won't think about that now.

All in all, I liked this one a great deal and am much anticipating the last!

Links:
- rilina's review

Comments

[oyceter]

Hee, and here are where my specific buttons come in! I am a complete and total sucker for backstory (which is why PoA was my old favorite), and oh man, this had backstory by the ton. Totally can see how that would be way to expository for people who are not quite so into backstory though. And I rather liked it because it felt more part of the series rather than a stand-alone book of Harry's school year. Wow, come to think of it, my reaction to this book is very influenced by my reactions to serial narratives a la TV! How funny!

Thanks for the thoughts ^_^. I really do hope something happens with the Voldemort-Harry connection, though I doubt Rowling will forget that, given how she keeps throwing it at us, but I do wish she would think more about Neville as the almost-prophecy boy. But then, I am biased because I like Neville.

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

I love backstory, and think the pensieve is a great way of doing it. I have to rely on flashbacks and long conversations in which characters compare their knowledge/memories/discoveries, which is far less elegant.

(I owe you a proper response to this post, but that'll happen later -- work and dinner took all my time last night.)

Gina

[oyceter]

Ooh, yes, I very much love the Pensieve (and the pun)!

Looking forward to a response ^_^.

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

I think the aspects I liked best were the further world-building, with references back to minor details set up in previous books, and the plotting. Rowling did seem to miss out details of her world that weren't strictly necessary, so readers who knew the world inside-out could fill in the gaps, but less immersed readers could still follow what was going on without that knowledge (I think she over-did the minor details in previous books, repeating what had gone before for the benefit of those playing catch-up).

I know it's probably an unpopular opinion, but I actually liked the fact that character relationships formed and then broke up. There were precursors of that in previous books, what with Ginny's turn-over of boyfriends, and the various episodes of falling out within the trio. I'm not against the idea of romance within a non-romance genre, I just like to see characters figuring out what works through exploring what doesn't.

As for Tonks and Remus, I think there was a lot going on behind the scenes, and Harry's view of it was greatly simplified due to his lack of experience, and the fact that he didn't see that much of either of them during the year. Whether I'm reading the relationship as Rowling intended is beside the point.

I'll be very interested to see how the structure of Book Seven differs from the previous six too.

Gina

[oyceter]

Oh I very much like how the characters go through assorted relationships like RL, instead of being "Oh, this person is my One True Love!" and never exploring other options.

Sigh, I'm sorry, I meant to write more in reply, but my brain has been pretty muddled for the past week or so.