Book review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Another year at Hogwarts, another meeting with our favorite wizards and witches, another battle against the Dark Arts. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince came out this past weekend, and the fans were out in droves at midnight to get it (yes, I was too). This book had more printings than any first run book in history. So, did it live up to it's hype?
I'd say yes, mostly.
I'm going to try to keep clear of spoilers in this review. Nothing major will be mentioned. But I may let loose a few minor details here and there. So, if you wish to stay totally spoiler free, I wouldn't read this just yet. But then again, if you haven't read the book yet, either you're not a fan and don't plan to read it, or....well, I can't think of any other reason for you to have not read it yet.
Each Harry Potter book so far has served some ulitmate purpose in the story. The first book introduced us to the world our characters live in. It showed us Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, Snape, Hagrid, and Voldemort. The second book gave us some background for the our main villian, and planted seeds for the future of the series. The third book turned the story to a much darker tone, and gave Harry a family member to lean on. The fourth book established an epic feel, and created the basic storyline for the remainder of the books. The fifth book brought war to the wizarding world, showed Harry to be turning into an angst ridden teen, and introduced death to the series.
I've felt that each book has gotten somewhat better than the last, both in story, and in writing style. So, where does book 6 fall in with this theory? Depends on which part of the book you're reading. Allow me to explain.
Throughout most of this book, the reader tends to feel a general sense of "been there, done that". We've seen Quidditch. We know Malfroy and Harry fued. And yes, mixing magic and politics is never fun. We get the picture.
Which isn't to say that it isn't still fun. I love the world Rowling has created, and will miss it when it's gone. It's just that all the other books have all taken us a little further than the book before it did. And through most of this book, it's more of the same.
You'll notice that I have been saying most of the book. There is a new character, Professor Slughorn, whom I love reading about. He's the kind of person who has connections, because he's always known who to suck up to. If you're from an important wizarding family, Slughorn will be coming to visit. He seems nice and genuine, but he's really only out for enhancing his status in society. Fun to watch.
And Rowling uses flashbacks to show us quite a bit about the origin of Voldemort. From his time as Tom Riddle, to becoming the Dark Lord. It also explains some things from previous books, and, I maintain, makes book 2, Chamber of Secrets, a better book by adding some elements you weren't aware of before.
The characters do grow. They're still somewhat in their angst years, and they're falling for each other. The main theme for this book really does seem to be love. For each other, for ourselves, and to battle evil.
And then there's the last five chapters. I won't say what happens (and if anyone in the comments says what happens, you will be flogged...hard), suffice to say, magic. Brilliant. Earth shatteringly sad. Sad because of what happens to one (actually, two) of the characters. Sad because of what these kids are having to go through at this age. Sad because, very soon, this series will be over.
In the grand scheme of things, this book, I believe, will be seen as a setting of the chess pieces. There were things that needed to be done before the final book. This book has set the stage wonderfully.
I'm giving this book 4 wands out of 5. Yes, there are times when this book seems to drag. And yes, we've seen much of this before. But that isn't entirely a bad thing. What we have here is a very good book in a truly excellent series.
