Cavalcade of Awesome

Two days, my friends. Two days and I will have Harry Potter Book 7 in my sweaty little palms. Oh that moment will be sweet. So sweet. Possibly even bittersweet, because I’ll know, that this is it. The end. Now I’m depressed.

Enough of that! Welcome to Part 2 of my Harry Potter book reviews. As you can see below this, I have reviews of Harry Potter books 3 – 6 ready to go. If you missed the first reviews including books 1 – 3 then click right here. If you read those already, then you, my Potter-fied little friend, are ready to move on to the conclusion. Continue below for the 3 books that lead into Saturday’s long awaited adventure.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – Goblet of Fire was released in Spring of 2000. I had preordered the book on Amazon and it arrived, I believe, on the day of release. That makes Goblet of Fire the first book I bought on release day. This was also the first book to really get long. I mean this book was twice as long as Prisoner of Azkaban. Also, this was the first book I remember everyone, including the media, go absolutely crazy for on release day. The popularity for the Harry Potter series literally exploded right before this book and it’s probably because the book before it was so gosh-darn good. I didn’t read it right away because I wanted to savor the flavor a bit, and later that year I would begin reading it. This book was good. It was long, and packed with so much information and action that it’s almost hard to grasp the entire situation, but the book was GOOD. The Tri-Wizard Tournament? The Quidditch World Cup? Mad-Eye Moody? Dragons? Are you kidding me? AWESOME. And the end? The battle in the graveyard? Classic. Completely blown away. I’ve read this book several times and I can’t wait to read it again. This book really ups the ante for our hero and the ending really kick starts everything that happens in the next 2 books. The sheer orgy of action and story that falls forth from this book is almost intoxicating and had me itching for the next chapter. Unfortunately, I didn’t know at the time, that the next book would take a little longer to release.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – It would take 3 years to release Order of the Phoenix. I call it the Harry Potter “Dark Ages”. Apparently the publishing company really wanted JK Rowling to crank these stories out every year and she said she felt horribly stressed and rushed to get the fourth book out. After that ordeal, she promised herself that she would no longer release the books on the publisher’s schedule. Due to this, I think she took a small sabbatical and took her time finishing this book (and probably also did it to make the publisher sweat a bit). This is the first book I actually went to the store on release night (at midnight) to pick up my pre-ordered copy. Once again, I waited a few months to read it. I knew I would blow right through it and then it would be over so I tried to savor it. However, once I finally read it, I did indeed blow right through it. This one is probably the darkest book of the bunch. Harry returns to Hogwarts an outcast (again) as the Daily Prophet and the Ministry of Magic are conspiring to discredit Harry’s claims that Voldemort is back. It’s just a really tough book for Harry. Not to mention the new teacher, Dolores Umbridge. One of the most terrifying and mean characters (next to Voldemort) ever brought forth by Rowling. Umbridge, in the book, literally makes my blood boil. Mean, mean, mean. The movie softened her up a bit making her like a psychotic Donna Reed, but in the book she’s scarier. This book has a lot more Sirius Black and you get to see the first gatherings of the Order of the Phoenix. Really, really good scenes. You also meet Kreacher, the house elf for the first time here. And I prefer the book’s telling of Dumbledore’s Army and Dumbledore’s escape from Fudge. Really good book that I forget is a really good book, until I read it again.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince – Starting with Order of the Phoenix the books are released 2 years apart. This book was released during the Summer of 2005. I had just moved to Jacksonville and I went to the bookstore on the afternoon it was released to pick up a copy. I only waited a month or so to read this one, but when I did, it blew me away. I’ve read it twice and this book goes down as my current favorite of the series. So unbelievably awesome. We get a new teacher in Horace Slughorn, another very entertaining character in this series. Snape takes over Defense against the Dark Arts. We see into the past of Voldemort to see how he possibly became what he is today. The subplot containing the Half-Blood Prince is an interesting one. I remember reading that this was supposed to appear in an earlier book but was removed to be included here. Fascinating. Anyway, this book really lays it on the line and fantastically sets up the next book. There’s a really good adventure Dumbledore and Harry go on towards the end of the book that leads into the Death Eaters attacking Hogwarts castle. Really, really phenomenal writing in this one that leaves you ACHING for more.

And more is about to be delivered in 2 days. Yes, I will immediately be reading the final book in this series as I can’t risk reading spoilers on the internet (they have been steadily leaking all week and no, I won’t link to them). The final chapter has the potential to be the best yet.

Viva la Potter!!

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This entry was posted on July 19, 2007 at 8:13 pm and is filed under books, Harry Potter, pop culture, reviews with tags book review, Harry Potter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.