SFist Reads
Our heart sank when we saw that we were number 664 on the online reserve list for the new Harry Potter, so we were especially happy to receive Jon's detailed (and blessedly spoiler-free) assessment of the book. We told ourselves that we wouldn't break down and buy it (though if we did we would do so at one of our fine local independent bookstores) Until then, we've reserved Jeremy's pick below, which is already "In Transit". Have any other recommendations on how to kill the time until our reserve number is up? Let us know in the comments!
Besides a bunch of comics from the San Diego Comic-Con? Jer is reading the third offering from David Liss, called A Spectacle of Corruption. It's a sequel to his first novel, A Conspiracy of Paper, a mystery/adventure taking place in the backdrop of the 18th cenury British stock market. Awesome historical fiction.
As much as Jon hates to admit it and as funny as it sounds coming from somebody who read the book in two days, but he found Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince a bit underwhelming. The problems with the book are typical problems of any sort of pop cultural series that goes on for a while.
With the premise established and the conventions well-known, it’s hard for anything to feel fresh anymore. Total "been there, done that." It’s especially hard to do when things get darker and more serious as what was once lighthearted and fun, which the first books were, doesn’t work anymore considering all the death and Good vs. Evil showdowns going down. In a way, the book reminded Jon of late-season "Buffy" when after all the Big Bad vanquishing, all the world saving (a lot), and all the "Buffy" deaths, Monster of the Week and Buffy can’t get a guy to like her episodes just didn’t work anymore.
Even Rowling seems to be aware of this and while she does try and introduce some of the normal life-at-Hogwarts subplots and new characters, she doesn’t seem much interested in it. The only thing really going on are romantic subplots, most of which are completely yawn inducing. And the book is kind of lacking for it. As much as Jon didn’t think he cared about things like who won the Hogwarts House cup, for instance (he had problems rooting for Gryffyndor, for instance, as he always considered himself more of a Hufflepuff and thought most Gryffyndor’s were probably total ponces), he kind of missed it. The book just kind of ambles along until the end.
The end, however, is, well, wow. A complete jaw dropper of an ending, even if David Kippen of the Chron totally gave most of it away in his otherwise excellent review. It’s like Season 5 Buffy when an uneven and flat season all came together with it’s "Buffy dies sacrificing herself to save the world" finale. Or better yet, like how the last hour or so of "Revenge of the Sith" kind of/sort of redeems the prequels. Or in sheer "everything going to hell in a handbasket" quality, the ending probably resembles the ultimate dark ending of all dark endings, the ending to "Empire Strikes Back."
In other words, it’s still pretty darn epic.