Well now, to be perfectly fair, I wrote this about 48 hours after the book came out (I finished it within 6 hours of receiving it...so it may have been more like 24 hours after release). The reason I haven't written a new review for the week is fairly simple--I didn't feel like it. There are possible Lost, Firefly, or Sports Night reviews floating around in my head, as well as a probable review on a the first two books of a series Adam suggested to me (we don't have the third or any other books though...bit of a problem, in my mind). But in the meantime, I'd like to reread what I wrote back in 2007, and posted over on a site called Goodreads. I have edited it slightly, namely to correct Ms. Rowling's name.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling (Spoliers probably contained within)
Frankly, I don't think this is her finest work. There are some fantastically funny bits, some incredibly heart-wrenching bits, and some rather boring bits (but they need to be there...the characters are bored and frustrated too). There's a lot of great character development, but there is also, at least in my mind, some character histories that don't seem to appropriately fit in with the already developed characters. That's not to say that the backstories are wrong (it's not my creation, I wouldn't say that even if I felt it), not very good, or unnecessary, but some didn't seem to fit quite the already developed characters. But that's just me. I also felt that there was a bit too much of the old deus ex machina going on. Many stories have a varient of it, often to save the main character, and that's cool, but to me it felt as though it reappeared far more times than one can plausibly expect it to. Time and time again, luck or love plays a part. That's important, but it also gets stretched thin. My partner complained about some of the deaths. Not because beloved characters died and it's sad/upsetting, but because those deaths seemed needless from a literary standpoint--they didn't add to the story. While I would argue that it more clearly shows the price of war, I agree that it could have perhaps been better executed. Fairly major characters died, with little more than a passing mention. There was no clear sign of what they were doing at the time, or specifically how it happened. Again, the price of war, but given the importance of those characters to others (and many readers), perhaps they deserved better (read: more). I also felt as though Rowling either caved to public pressure, or more likely, her own love of the characters. I think some very good things came out of the final battle sequences (it nearly read like a movie, which has always been one of her strong points--clear visualization for the reader to work with), but I also think she waffled on her final decision for Harry, given the surrounding circumstances. It was not a bad ending by any stretch, and the battles were some of the finest I've read--clear and easy to follow, but not incredibly drawn out and obnoxious like Robert Jordan, and not as confusing as some of Tolkien's battles (I'm sure I'll be shot momentarily). I did like the book, and I think it's good. But I think that people will, as they read it over time and come back to it, discover that maybe it's not as good as first felt. But whatever they feel, J.K. Rowling has done amazing things for the reading public--she's gotten them reading again, and excited to do so.
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