[donaldscrankshaw] Donald: Review of *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*

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Posted by Donald:
Review of *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*
http://www.donaldscrankshaw.com/posts/1185312269.shtml


   IFRAME:
   [1]http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=backoftheenve-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0
   545010225&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&lc1=0000FF&bc1=FFFFFF&bg1=FFFFFF
   &f=ifr

   Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the seventh and final Harry
   Potter book, and as such, it is bound to disappoint people. What
   series, having built up such a following, can possibly live up to
   everyone's expectations in the final book? There were numerous things
   I was disappointed in myself. Despite that, I enjoyed the book
   overall, and if you've read all the others, it's simply impossible not
   to read the final one. I will not attempt to make this a spoiler-free
   review. There will be minor ones from this point on. I'll hide the big
   ones at the end, but there will be small ones throughout.
   First, lest anyone has any doubts, this really is the final Harry
   Potter book. It finishes up everything: it ties up the loose ends,
   answers all the mysteries that have been dangling since Book 1
   (Snape's motivations and Dumbledore's reasons for trusting him being
   the big one), and closes out with a satisfying finality. Rowlings
   could write more books in this world, certainly, but Harry Potter's
   story is complete.
   It's not too much of a spoiler to reveal that this book takes place
   away from Hogwarts, as Harry said that he would not be returning to
   Hogwarts for his final year as a student at the end of the last book.
   Instead, he spends it wandering around the countryside, looking for
   Horcruxes. Without the school as the backdrop, a lot of things don't
   work as well as they could. Harry and his friends spend the whole year
   wandering, and that means that weeks go by when there's nothing
   happening. At school, weeks where not much happens are at least filled
   with classes, but out in the middle of nowhere, nothing means nothing,
   and I find it hard to imagine that they couldn't come up with
   something to do.
   Another negative is the tendency Rowlings has to infodump. This has
   always been an issue in the Harry Potter books: that final chapter
   where Dumbledore explains everything, after a whole book of
   tantalizing hints that you can be sure mean exactly the opposite of
   they appear to mean. This time around, with the final book and a lot
   left to explain, there are a lot more infodumps, and a lot less
   misleading tantalizing hints. Now I like getting information, but I
   couldn't help feeling that maybe this could have been spread out
   better.
   Boring stretches and infodumps took up way too much of this book, but
   there were exciting moments too. And those mostly worked out pretty
   well. Each time a Horcrux was retrieved or destroyed, the account was
   engaging and entertaining. Unfortunately, the final showdown didn't
   match the caliber of these exciting interludes.
   Now, on to the big spoilers:

   ([2]show)

   The final battle (of course there's a final battle) was probably the
   weakest of the exciting moments, as it was drawn out and interspersed
   with infodumps. And like many of the resolutions in Rowlings's books,
   there was a complicated explanation of the idiosyncracies of magic
   behind the outcome. It's reminiscent of the way the technobabble in
   Star Trek often acts as a sort of deus ex machina. This one wasn't as
   bad as the fourth book's, as the entire book had been leading up to
   it, but it still took away from the satisfaction the ending could have
   had.
   Oh, and not to gloat too much, but if you want the big spoiler: yes, I
   was right [3]about Snape. Not in all the details, mind you, but in
   enough: I was right about the relationship between Snape and Lily,
   that Snape's warning was the reason Harry's family went into hiding in
   the first place, that Dumbledore's injury from retrieving the Horcrux
   was slowly killing him, and, most importantly, that Snape was acting
   on Dumbledore's orders when he killed him. My satisfaction at being
   proved right contributed greatly to my enjoyment of this book.
   Finally, lots of people die in this book. Character deaths haven't
   been particularly rare since the fourth book, but many important
   characters die here, often off camera and without the drama they
   deserve. This can be disappointing, especially for characters you
   like, but it's not unexpected in the big, dangerous finale.
   ([4]hide)

   As I said, overall I liked it, but it could have been better.

References

   1. http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=backoftheenve-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0545010225&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&lc1=0000FF&bc1=FFFFFF&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr
   2. file://localhost/var/www/powerblogs/donaldscrankshaw/posts/1185312269.html
   3. http://www.donaldscrankshaw.com/posts/1122126682.shtml
   4. file://localhost/var/www/powerblogs/donaldscrankshaw/posts/1185312269.html