Harry Potter 7 was awful

[Mandark]

Read it this weekend.  Approximate conversation on returning it to its owner:

Me: Well, it could have lost 250 pages in the middle, where they're in the woods.

Book Owner: Yeah.

Me: And the characters really grated on me.  At least she kind of acknowledged that, when Dumbledore tells Harry he's one of the most selfish people he's ever met.

BO: Actually, the line was "most selfless"

Me: What!?

BO: Yeah, I double-checked it when I read it.

Me: Bollocks.


FIN

[Ichirou]

But Daniel Radcliffe is so hot.

[Van Cruncheon]

yeah, it was pretty wretched.

[bagofeyes]

Never read any. A friend dragged me to the latest film and it was the longest, most boring piece of shit I've ever fallen asleep watching.

[Phoenix Dark]

Amazing book. Made me laugh, made me cry, and most important of all satisfied me as a fan of the series.

[Mandark]

Things Rowling is apparently bad at:

World building.

Creating likable characters.

Constructing mysteries that don't use Agatha Christie-style explanations as a crutch.

Pacing.

Constructing mysteries that don't hinge on Agatha Christie-style withholding of evidence from the reader.

Anything besides adolescent wish-fulfillment.



Need new light reading.  I got a couple of used Dresden Files paperbacks, and I couldn't finish the second one.  And I once read a dozen Spencer books over a week, so I have a high tolerance for mass-produced detective stuff.  Jim Butcher writes like an award-winning fanfic author.

[The Fake Shemp]

I think maybe you're a little harsh on Rowling, but she is pretty awful at creating likable characters.  You hit the nail on the head - overgrown man children like Phoenix Dark get so caught up in the adolescent wish fulfillment aspect of this series that they overlook the fact that the titular character is a pompous jackass.

[Van Cruncheon]

i'm gonna re-read stephen r donaldson's "mordant's need" pair of fantasy novels here. i just read through gene wolfe's new sun quadrology and still have a hankerin' for highbrow fantasy, if there is such a thing.

[brawndolicious]

I had to do an essay on the "gay dumbledore gimmick" fiasco (my teacher knows that it's rowling being an idiot) and I got to do the whole essay on how the gay community would be pissed off on it (that was bs as far as I know) but I had to watch some of the most unbearable youtube videos of fans jerking off on rowling and 19 year old man-baby's whimpering at every word in this dumbfuck children's book.  here's one of the good videos:

[youtube=425,350]K5tH41XhgZc[/youtube]

[Mandark]

Harry started off as sort of a blank, and Rowling built up sympathy for him by making his childhood so miserable.  Which would be a cheap trick, but it's a kid's book so no problems.

But as the books go on and he gets older and he meets allies and gets fans and wins stuff, etc, he doesn't develop into a character in his own right.  And he no longer has the helplessness of his earlier situation to justify his continued whinging.

Back in my day, I had Lloyd Alexander for my coming-of-age stories.  The Black Cauldron and Westmark books actually had their main characters get their act together.

I'm gonna read some old spy books.

[Ichirou]

Need new light reading.  I got a couple of used Dresden Files paperbacks, and I couldn't finish the second one.  And I once read a dozen Spencer books over a week, so I have a high tolerance for mass-produced detective stuff.  Jim Butcher writes like an award-winning fanfic author.

Do you like Lawrence Block?  He's a good mystery writer, I recommend you check out his stuff.