New Harry Potter Book! (Spoilers)

[Kloreep]

Since it seems this board doesn't have a [spoiler] tag, time for a new thread methinks.




SPOILERS for Half-Blood Prince!!!

I know that I going to be shouted at for saying this but is JKR being paid by the page? You'd think so by this volume, and for what? A volume that does get boiling until its last 3 chapters.

Sorry folks but JKR has RUN OUT OF IDEAS.

I don't know about that. Horcruxes, Slughorn, etc... but, as you say, she does seem to be holding back in preparation for the last one.

This is evidenced bythe fact that the identity of the half-blood prince is obvious from the first mention of the character,

It was?

Snape was suspect #2 on my short list of 3, but my #1 was Voldemort. (#3 Slughorn)

the 'death' at the end is once again for shock value only,

Now I will shout at you for saying this. Shock value only? It's the old death of the teacher trick. Not a new idea, as you were ranting about previously, but it certainly was not shock value only. I'd say it's quite analagous to Kosh or Obi-Wan Kenobi.

It also tells us a lot about what's coming in the final book, I think. Tell me, what do you think of Snape? Why did he do it?

Personally, I think Dumbledore wanted him to kill him. Hence him pleading with Snape; if he trusts Snape so much, I don't think he'd feel it necessary to plead for his life. But his death... he probably wouldn't trust Snape to go through with it and kill him.

But it's deliberately ambiguous (even though I think Rowling tipped her hand a little with Snape not killing Harry) and hard to piece out what led things there.

BTW, as far as "shock value" goes, I've read some people saying they expected Dumbledore to die from the second chapter with the Unbreakable Vow. I didn't personally, though I did come to expect Dumbledore's death as the book wore on - just not by Snape's wand.

and the whole thing could easily have been done in a much tighter form with a 200page trim.

Does JKR have no editor? She needs one. The plot here is stretched so very thin that you can almost hear it creaking under the strain of having to support so much waste paper.

It is obvious to me that (as a reader and fan of the earlier books) JKR has very little left but has had to save everything she has in reserve for the last book.

Should have been so much better.

I'd disagree with 200 pages, but I certainly would have liked to see the 100 or so excess replaced with what I was expecting and didn't get.

My memories of books 4 and 5 are hazy as I haven't read them in a while (book 5 especially, which I only read the one time); but IIRC there was a lot more happening in them. JKR used the increased size to give us a lot more characters on the playing field. In Book 4 we had all the visiting students and their teaching staff, Book 5 we had a bunch of Aurors and members of the Order running around... Book 6, we still have about the same length, but many fewer side characters it seemed to me. The world seemed to shrink instead of expanding again as it had the previous two books. On the other hand, one would think we'd have a pretty good picture of the wizarding world by this time; so if there had been much new stuff thrown in, I bet I would now be ranting about how it's preposterous we would not have heard of these things before.

That said, I still liked it. I'd say it's #2 on my list, after Goblet of Fire.

[Radhil]

I don't know about that. Horcruxes, Slughorn, etc... but, as you say, she does seem to be holding back in preparation for the last one.

This book was all about whittling down the possibilities and threads. I have to say I liked it, but it definitely didn't move the same way the other books did. I would've liked a little more insight into the school other than "Oh, we get these lessons now".

Snape was suspect #2 on my short list of 3, but my #1 was Voldemort. (#3 Slughorn)

Snape was - I thought - the obvious choice, right up UNTIL the date on the book was found, and then obviously Hermione dug up the Prince name. It threw me off completely. Which, I presume, was the intention.

Personally, I think Dumbledore wanted him to kill him. Hence him pleading with Snape; if he trusts Snape so much, I don't think he'd feel it necessary to plead for his life. But his death... he probably wouldn't trust Snape to go through with it and kill him.

But it's deliberately ambiguous (even though I think Rowling tipped her hand a little with Snape not killing Harry) and hard to piece out what led things there.

It's only ambiguous with regards to Snape's ultimate intentions. He chose his side. Irrevocably. Maybe he's attempting something more subtle, one last hand to play now that his suspicious Death Eater cadre is off his back - Snape is the master of the subtle science of potions after all, and has been playing both sides since his own days at Hogwarts. Snape is ultimately, I think, on his own side. Where that will put him in the end is a very very good question.

Some prearranged ploy of Dumbledore's? It's a vain hope I think. That last conversation with Harry concerning Snape said it all - an obstinate old man, certain in one trusting decision. Dumbledore made a mistake. He saw something in Snape worth saving. It was probably even there. It was never saved.

[Kloreep]

I've heard speculation that Lily meant something to Snape. That would certainly explain a little more why Dumbledore trusted in his regret, though it still might not have been genuine and doesn't really show anything one way or another.

Snape being his own agent, certainly possible. Him actually being Voldy's henchman seems a little too cut and dry somehow, though I can't really judge what Rowling's characters would or would not be.

I certainly think Dumbledore would have gone for a public betrayal by Snape to try to get him in cozy with Voldy. What does seem somewhat ludicrous is that Dumbledore would be willing to include his death in that. On the other hand... remember, one surviving Horcrux and Voldy is still immortal. Dumbledore just might have told Snape to kill him, if that became absolutely necessary due to witnesses and such, to ensure that they still had a man on the inside.