And The Deathly Hallows

[captainspud]

I'll make only two quick comments. First, utterly spoiler-free:

-The first 1/4 of the book sucks, the next 1/4 is kinda sloppy and doesn't really go anywhere, but after that it picks up steam and ends up being quite good. It's a good ending to the series.

And the spoiler bit, which doesn't technically *spoil* anything, but you could imply things from it:

[spoiler]The full chapter of Snape's perspective on the story was absolutely perfect. I couldn't think of a better way to end the series. Bravo. I definitely get why he's JK's favourite character.[/spoiler]

[BentonGrey]

Read a summary, as I'm very curious how it ends, thanks to the movies hooking my interest, but don't have time to go through the full series any time soon.  I have to say, sounds like a good ending.  I may actually read these one day.

[Bujin]

I'll make only two quick comments. First, utterly spoiler-free:

-The first 1/4 of the book sucks, the next 1/4 is kinda sloppy and doesn't really go anywhere, but after that it picks up steam and ends up being quite good. It's a good ending to the series.

And the spoiler bit, which doesn't technically *spoil* anything, but you could imply things from it:

[spoiler]The full chapter of Snape's perspective on the story was absolutely perfect. I couldn't think of a better way to end the series. Bravo. I definitely get why he's JK's favourite character.[/spoiler]

I thought that the first 1/4 was quite good, the next quarter was excellent, and then it only got better from there.   ;)

I agree it's a good ending to the series - I'll miss these characters. 

[Gremlin]

[spoiler]I enjoyed it.  I cried several times during this book, which is pretty rare for me.

I agree with Bujin; the beginning was cool, and it just kept getting better.  Around the time the Hollows were introduced I got a little worried.  I thought they already had a Macguffin with the Horcruxes?  But I'm going to reread the series as soon as I clear off my current plate of reading material, and I think knowing about the Hallows already will change the way I read everything else in the books.  Of course, that was already done with Snape (and he is the COOLEST!), and I'll never be able to hate him again, but still.  All in all, a fine yarn, one that answers the questions I was dying to have answered and still left a few things open for fans to theorize on.

Now, who wants to read a book about what was happening at Hogwarts the whole time?[/spoiler]

[stumpy]

Read it and liked it.

[spoiler]I did like the denouements with Snape and Dumbledore. Particularly Snape. He has so consistently been on the good side throughout the series that it would bug me when people criticized him as though he were really wicked. And, as I told someone a couple years ago, "The odds that Dumbledore will be wrong about something like that are vanishingly small."

I am still sort of wondering what happened to the Dursleys. I think they deserved a paragraph or two at the end, especially given the revelations that Petunia also knew Snape as a lad and was actually jealous of Lily's magic.

The ending makes it pretty likely that JKR doesn't plan much for Harry Potter himself during the intervening 19 years. I'll miss him, but I can see where he's had his big adventure and is earning some well-deserved domestic tranquility and normalcy (for a wizard). Of course, if he is an Auror, he might still be seeing some action.

Some ideas for further books in the milieu:

• A History of Hogwarts
  
  
• Earlier Life of Dumbledore.
  
  
• The Founding of Hogwarts
  
  
• Lives of the Four Hogwarts founders (Slytherin, Hufflepuff, etc.)
  
  
• "Parallel histories" of the wizarding world during significant muggle historical periods (WW2, discovery/exploration of Americas, etc.)
  

Of course, Rowling is a billionaire now, so she may decide to just spend her days with her own family or sipping pina coladas...

[/spoiler]

[Talavar]

I thought the beginning was good, the middle lagged and wandered a little, but the ending was tight and a fine capper to the series. 

[spoiler]
I was a little surprised by just how brutal Rowling could be with some of the deaths.  Both Lupin and Tonks, one of the Weasely twins, even little Colin Creevey - they were pretty harsh for a book that is still aimed at children.

I can't go so far as agreeing that Snape is cool; with his whole story revealed now I find him a strange mix of tragic and creepy.

I would also have liked a little bit more resolution for the Dursleys, as well as the Malfoys.  I always thought a real choice between good and evil was coming for Draco, and it never really materialized.

I would have liked to learn what Harry et al ended up doing for careers.  Did he become an auror? 

stumpy, you've got some interesting ideas that I wouldn't mind seeing fleshed out in more tales from Potter-land; even if JK never writes about Harry again, she could certainly tell a lot more stories with the same setting.
[/spoiler]

[Podmark]

Just finished it and I enjoyed it the whole way through, certainly a great ending to the series.

[spoiler]The epilogue bugged me. I would have preferred more of the immediate reactions after the battle and afterwards. Made me feel like I was really missing out on something. Alot of characters weren't mentioned towards the end and I really wish we'd gotten some clarity about their fates. I have serious doubts Rowling will return to the series anytime soon if ever and I really would have preferred more information.

Was really sad that Fred died. He and George were among my very favorite characters and I really would have liked to see more fallout from that. I really loved it when Percy came back though that really made me smile.

I always trusted that Dumbledore knew what he was doing when he trusted Snape. For a long time I was disappointed with Snape's use in the book, especially right after he died but the chapter about his past made up for all of it. It will be very different reading through the series again knowing all the facts now.

Was kinda disappointed with Draco's role as well. I always kinda thought he'd end up on the good side, but instead....well he seemed to me to be a kid who got in over his head and never had the strength to get back out. Actually the whole Malfoy family seemed that way in the end.

There's so much more I could say but I think I'll leave it at that for now.
[/spoiler]

[Mr. Hamrick]

all in all i thought it was a fitting end to the series, but a few things still bugged me

[spoiler]

• The deaths of Lupin and Tonks.  I don't have a problem with them dying just the fact that it seemed like it all happened "off camera".  I would've liked to had seen Tonks die in combat with Bellatrix before Molly got a hold of her.  And something similar for Lupin.  Plus, Tonks was one of my favorite characters.
• Was I the only one who thought that something involving Draco got edited out?  It jumped from Draco getting saved by Ron a second time to the end of the battle (before the epilouge) in "The Great Hall" as far as Draco's involvement.  I almost felt like there should've been some sort of bit where Draco does do something to suggest more of a truce between him and Harry, Ron and Hermionie.
• I'd have liked some more information in the epilouge.  Mostly just an idea of who became headmaster.  Was Miss MacGougal (however you spell her name) still headmistress?  What became of Luna?  Did Mr. Weasley become Minister of Magic?  etc.
• Am I correct in assuming that Ron and Hermionie live in the muggle world and that Harry and Ginny might too? (well, if you count the house that Sirius left Harry as being in the Muggle World.)

[/spoiler]

[stumpy]

[spoiler]

• I felt the same way about Lupin, Tonks, Malfoy, etc. during the battle. I understand that JKR couldn't possibly give a play-by-play for each named combatant on the field, but I was left with the impression that something important / interesting had (or should have) happened with those characters and we weren't told about it. At one point in the battle, I even got the impression that the giants were going after Hagrid and he was in trouble, but then he just turns up at Voldemort's camp when Harry gets there.
• The afterward with Draco Malfoy left me wondering, too. But, I think we were supposed to get the sense that he never quite had his cathartic moment where he acted definitively on the side of good, so he lives out his life sort of ashamed for his choices and how he was used by Voldemort.
• I agree that it really would have added something to the "19 years later" chapter if JKR had given us a rundown of people's careers and so on. I thought Harry had his heart set on being an Auror, but who knows if he became one? Similarly, whoever became the next Minister of Magic had a real cleanup job ahead of him, especially since several children apparently died in that battle at Hogwarts while basically fighting against the side the Ministry was backing. What did Ron and Hermione do? I always thought she would have made a great professor and researcher. Did George continue to run the gag shop, or was it too much for him after Fred died? And, is he still the light-hearted jester/prankster without his twin to play off of?
• BTW, just admitting a bad theory here, but I thought for sure that the way Harry, Ron, and Hermione were being tracked in their tent-hopping days was because the Minister had tainted one of gifts from Dumbledore's will to make it traceable.
• I got the impression that the adult Ron & Hermione and Harry & Ginny lived in "mixed" neighborhoods, with both muggles and wizards, sort of like Lily Potter (nee Evans) and Severus did. I couldn't be sure where I got that impression without re-reading the last chapter...
• I was never completely sure how the Sword of Gryffindor got back into the Sorting Hat, though it might have been mentioned and I was too busy racing through the battle scene to pay attention. Maybe Gryffindor just imbued the Hat with the ability to summon the Sword...?
• I still have this nagging complaint about the scene in book six when Snape casts the killing curse on Dumbledore and Dumbledore is thrown over the side of the castle wall. It was made very clear in earlier descriptions of the curse that Avada Kedavra has no physical effect on the targets except to kill them - they just stop what they are doing and fall over, dead. It's a minor complaint overall, but why take extra effort to describe it that way and then have it act differently on Dumbledore? It just served to fuel speculation that he wasn't really dead and it makes me wonder if JKR didn't do that delberately.

In addition to its other plaudits, I think, in retrospect, the series plays pretty well as a coming-of-age tale, told in installments. Harry starts out wide-eyed and innocent, but eventually comes to realize that even the people one dislikes can be good guys {Snape}, that bad guys are sometimes bad for complicated reasons {Voldemort had a very abusive upbringing, Draco was trying to please evil parents}, that institutions are often more interested in their own authority and image than their ostensible duties {Ministry of Magic}, and that even his heroes are flawed (and maybe even that they are all the more heroic for overcoming those flaws) {Dumbledore, James Potter, etc.}.

I remember when I first read the series (right after book four came out) I was impressed at how well Rowling had captured the mindset of an eleven-year-old: making friends in a new environment, picking "nice" teachers and "mean" teachers in school, finding mentors among older kids and grown-ups, etc. Having come all this way, I am still impressed that she carried that skill of reflecting adolescent temperament through to the end of the series. She portrayed the first loves, the competitions, the hot-headedness that many teens exhibit while trying to accomplish goals with limited resources and experience (of course there were some pretty big stretches in that area), the frustration with adults who restrict kids and limit their knowledge for their "own good", the disillusionment that people you trust have other agendas, and so on.

An impressive effort, overall.[/spoiler]

[Podmark]

[spoiler]I read in an interveiw that Tonks and Lupin weren't originally going to die. Also Arthur was supposed to die in an early version.[/spoiler]