THE DEATHLY HALLOWS DISCUSSION (SPOILERS)

[Freya]

here is for the Deathly Hallows discussion

Merlin's Pants!

[Kira]

Aww are we really the only ones!

[Freya]

guess so! nya!

[Dinky]

No. I've read it............but I don't know if you want to hear my reaction to it......

[Kira]

By all means, please do...We all have different taste. Its okay if you didn't like it. Or if you did, lol. But we just want to hear your view, who knows, maybe we'll share the same opinion.

[Dinky]

Well, I'm sure I'm not the only one who had the ending completely figured out by the end of the 6TH book, not to mention this one... URGH. For a while I was hoping she would do something a LITTLE different with the whole "deathly hallows" thing, but NO.
AND WHAT'S WITH LETTING HARRY LIVE AND THE WHOLE HAPPY ENDING THING?!?!?!?! I knew she'd do it in the end, but jeez. Wussy way out, if you ask me.
But what REALLY torked me off was not the fact that she killed Fred Weasely (at least she killed someone important and left them to rot....) but that SHE KILLED HIM AND IT WAS JUST LIKE OOPS HE'S DEAD, OH WELL!
We spent an entire chapter in mourning for DOBBY, but she hardly mentions the fact that one of the two best characters in her entire series DIED. What about poor George?!?!? And Ron just troops up to Dumbledore's office like ladeedaa nothing's happened....
If it was MY brother, I'd have been devastated, and I think the whole Weasly family would have been huddled together CRYING, not spread out all over the Great Hall!!!!!!!
Sorry. I told you you didn't want to hear it..
But hey, the 5th movie was WAY better than the book, definitely the best HP movie yet! They just keep getting better, can't wait for the last two!

[Kira]

Okay I have to agree on the Fred part.

A lot of people do talk about her writing. I'll admit its not the greatest or best. I think Book 3, 4, 7 were her best as far as writing.

I was going to add five because the writing is good, but there were still "too much" if you know what I mean. If any thing this series could have been 5 books.

I just did not like book 6 at all. half of book six could have been book 2 and the other half book 7...hmm I'll go as far as say, books 2, 6, 7 could have been one book. They all deal with the same issues.

*** (Gonna go off on a rant on, lol)

writing is very hard. I think you're going to write a series, you need to work it out from the get-go, thats why I like J. Michael Straczynski and Babylon 5, so much. He had the whole story worked out.

I mean I know you need character development, but some of her "side quest" were just too much. Thats what happens, you're writing and thinking, "oh this will be cool" and then the end comes, "Oh crap! I'm already at 6oo pages! crap, I'll just shortcut his part!"

lol, I'm sure Freya will come on here and rip me a new one... Like I said writing is hard. Harry Potter is a good series, and hey its getting kids to read.

[Dinky]

Yes, true about writing being very difficult, esp. a series. I completely agree that this series could have been 3-4 books shorter...the 5th book was ridiculous, and so was the 6th...
I guess my biggest beef with HP is that it is so incredibly hyped by the majority as being so incredible, when really it's nothing more than an interesting story that happened to come out at the right time and get the attention of the right people. I know someone who took a college (!) class on the HP books!!!!! I was shocked and unhappy about that, because the writing, the complexity, etc is NOT worthy of a college-level class! It's interesting to study the phenomenon of the popularity--like the Beatles in music (good, but were they really THAT good?)---but as for the books themselves..........
There are better ones out there.
EXAMPLE: The Lord of the Rings and related books like the Silmarillian (and yes, I read them LONG before the movies came out)
I will give JKR this: she builds interesting background/supporting characters. I wish she would have done more with some of them. I loved the little glimpse into Luna Lovegood's house and bedroom--nothing like a bedroom to really show a person. It was some of her best writing in this book...but in the overall scheme a bit unnecessary.
GREATEST PART IN THE WHOLE SERIES: Fred and George's departure from Hogwarts. I cheered out loud at that part.....although in retrospect, that part may just seem so good cuz the whole rest of the book was nearly unreadable.
Book 4 was the best, though a bit long. I'll agree the writing in the 7th is improved from some of her earlier ones, and she does manage to tie up the story neatly.....but it's just a little TOO neatly for my tastes. Maybe she was worried about death threats if she really killed Harry?....

[oldwrench]

That's my Dinky. She's an avid reader, and a pretty good writer. I haven't read any Potter books so I can't comment, but I have read some very excellent SciFi series, like the Dune series, Asimov's works, Niven's "Known Space" series, and lots of others. It's very imperssive when you have a series like Dune that has so many sub plots and intrigues going on that are all resolved with such a plot twist at the end of seven books.

[Ntoonz]

We've all read it, and found it quite satisfying. But I see your point about Fred. The writing seemed to be a lot lighter in this last book - more comedic touches. It was a good read.