Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

You may not want to meet the mysterious Half-Blood Prince after dark in real life, but J.K. Rowling's book about him is interesting enough to keep you up long after dark, engrossed in another exciting story about Harry Potter and his battle against Voldemort. I was myself a victim of her enchantment last night, my nose stuck in the book until it finally came to its firm resolution. Of course, the resolution only left me wanting more, and the next book promises to be the most interesting yet.

I am a big fan of the Harry Potter series, in the sense that I read each one when it comes out as soon as I can, then completely forget the plot in time for the next one to come out, which I read immediately for the assured and ready entertainment. It's not deep literature, and it's not good literature, but it's the sort of fun and frothy read that reminds me of my childhood fantasies of adventure and danger. And that's far from worthless.

In fact, when I opened the book this last weekend, I was disappointed. The beginning was interesting in its own way, but it was rather atypical of Harry Potter's books, and it was also rather shockingly sub-par literarily. It's not that she doesn't grasp grammar or vocabulary, it's just that the images she presents are not presented beautifully or excellently. Many other authors have done better in that area.

What keeps you up late at night is the plot. Rowling's plots are delightful , and the language is almost an encumberment to their fast paced roll. It's amazing how fast you can read these books, I finished it in only snippets grabbed here and there from my busy schedule in 3 days. That's because it's the pace and action that grabs you, not the setting or commentary. Since I've been reading Doestoyevsky recently, this is quite shocking to me, but it's pretty typical of modern popular fiction, and I'm not going to complain.

Of course, good books change lives for the better, or at least communicate something uniquely that will nourish our souls. Does Rowling accomplish this with her latest adventure? I'm not sure. She has been weaving good themes into the books about self-sacrificial love, and in this way, at least, there is only good to be found in them. It is not a bad thing to educate people about that sort of thing, not at all!

As far as the infamous ending goes, I wasn't crushed, but that's because I saw it coming before I even read the book. There were some surprises, however, though you couldn't call them twists by any stretch of the imagination. Anyway, good read, I recommend it.