Harry Potter - THE END (spoilerific version)

[Radhil]

C'mon. Get it out. You know you need to by now.

You've read the book. Now spill.

I'll chill and hold off until I read it properly.

[Lunan]

i'm happy to comment a bit now. i'm afraid i found the book a bit lacking. and there are some serious holes that annoy me. mainly polyjuice potion, she set a strick 1 hour time limit and in this book she basically ignores it

the book felt hurried, rushed. she didn't put the same kind of effort into this as she did in 1-5 (i wasn't to happy with 6 either)
snape turning out to be really working for dumbledore was BEYOND OBVIOUS even in book 6, i wish she had done a little better job with that (ok its a fiarly common plot element but still could have been handled much better)

and then the "deathly hallows" themselves. Dues Ex Machina much? she could still have told this story(and likely done a better job) without them.

i'm not so thrilled with the new info dumped in this book, ok a certain amount of new info in any book for a series is always needed but if this was REALLY planned and plotted so far ahead as has been claimed then some of the info could have been slipped into the previous books, a small mention of dumbeldore's mothers name, a mention of the elder wand or the ressurection stone in some passing referance(paticularly the wand, could easily have been slipped into a "history of magic" lesson)

it really just feels like all she was doing was tying the series up so she coul dbe left alone for awhile(and i don't blame her)

the whole between life and death sceene also bugs me, it just didn't feel smooth.

overall while i did enjoy the book, it just wasn't up to expectations at all
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[Kloreep]

I think the Hallows were important for the way she told the story. She wanted to force Harry to make the Hallows vs. Horcruxes choice. Thing is, that wasn't possible solely on the information on which we ended Book 6. The Horcruxes were his only chance at anything good coming out of his confrontation with Voldemort - never mind if he even would survive. During the time that he actually believes in Lovegood Sr.'s tail, the Hallows hold out the hope of survival, but at the possible cost of letting the Horcruxes go and thus let Voldemort live as well. I agree the Hallows were a bit abrupt; indeed, I don't remember mention of the Elder Wand under that or any of its other names, and as you say, it's a bit odd that something that famous was not present. The newness of the other two was explained pretty well though, I thought. On the whole, though, I wasn't really expecting anything else than an out-of-the-blue magical item. Rowling's pulled plenty of stuff out of the blue over the years, from the Sorting Hat's weird abilities, to the Time Turner, to Portkeys we had somehow never heard of in the past three years, to Horcruxes, etc. It seems like almost every book has had something new and previously unencountred/unexplained.

BTW, while the Hallows were abrupt, I thought a lot of the other stuff was well-integrated. Dumbledore's mother and sister's names were new, yes, as was his sister's existence. But that was the point. Regarding things that weren't hushed up, Dumbledore has mentioned his brother by name at least once before. And in the very first book, the Dumbledore card Harry gets on the Hogwarts Express cites Dumbledore's defeat of Grindelwald as one of his major achievements. Godric's Hollow was also mentioned in the first one, I think. One of the early three, at any rate. Ultimately it felt pretty well planned out to me. After years of being confused about Dumbledore's brief look of triumph at the end of book 4, I finally have an explanation.

Anyhow, I liked the book a lot. It definitely drags while they're moping around in the tent (and the having to wear the Horcrux thing was a bit stupid, not to mention purely idiotic after the reminder during Snape's memories of what another Horcrux did to Dumbledore). But once the front-loaded information & set-up is out of the way, the last half or so of the book was probably my favorite part of the series so far. I agree it was a bit obvious with Snape, but ah well. After finishing Book 6 convinced of Snape's goodness, Rowling did actually have me on the fence for the start of 7 - until, that is, Ginny & co. got off with a slap on the wrist for trying to steal the sword of Gryffindor. That just didn't click with the scenario of him being loyal to Voldemort.

BTW, I was left with one question, though it's a minor one: Voldemort and Harry not only were chosen by wands with twin cores, but those dual phoenix-feather cores came from Fawkes. Is it merely sheer coincidence that that particular Phoenix came to live with Dumbledore? I had doubted it, particularly since Dumbledore had made a point of saying they were Fawkes' but now the series is over without it matter much at all. Ah well. Like I said, minor.

[NotSoWize]

I liked it quite a bit, probably one of my two favorites in the series. I tend to agree that the whole "Hallows" bit was not much more than a red herring though. As far as Snape's allegiance being "obvious", I disagree. While I believed in him all along, a lot of my family did not and the web featured huge debates about which side Snape was on.

I especially liked the way the J.K. handled a lot of the secondary characters. Luna, Neville, and Ginny all got to have their moments to shine. I would have liked to see more of Hagrid though.

Overall a mostly satisfying ending to a great series.

[babylonlurker]

I liked the book as it ties up essentially all loose ends. We should not forget either that the story is mainly told for a relatively young audience, hence it may be less complex than the stories we prefer (as older audience)

And yes, it may have been somewhat more black and white for us used to shades of gray, I did not mind that.

An Snape : yes, there was some doubt at times , so I did not find it as extremely obvious as some of you.

All in all I found some nice twists and turns in the story, and was well entertained.

[WorkerCaste]

I liked the book and thought it was a satisfying end. The Hallows could have been supported with hints earlier in the books, but I wouldn't consider them to be deus ex machina since they didn't really solve the story. They more filled out the mythology that led to the resolution. I think of them as more in the line of story telling details.

I really liked to character arc for Neville. It showed that he could easily have been the boy linked to Voldemort by the prophecy. Might not have happened quite the same way, but he definitely had it in him.

[Radhil]

I haven't sat down to read it again - naturally, real life collides - but I read this article by Stephen King tonight.

I get the feel that I was just as bad as the media glut he describes, trying to consume the whole thing at once. Of course, that's King's ideal most days, his point through a smattering of novels and capping one magnum opus, that the journey to the end is worthier than the end itself. King's ideal doesn't have to deal with the friggin' Intarweb I live in though.

I'm glad he wrote this though. There was a small part of me that was afraid to re-read any of the Potter stuff, rather exhausted on all the hype, wondering if the magic was ever really there. And now that I read this, he's right, it is. If you take the time to look.