Harry Potter 6

Okay, so I'm a little behind in my reading and I just finished the latest Harry Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". This is the 6th book in the beloved series by J.K. Rowling which has sold millions. The number of books sold in this series is staggering, no other series of books even comes close. With the next movie based on the books hitting theaters in November, I thought I would go ahead and post up my thoughts and book number 6.

First off my introduction to the Harry Potter universe was when book 3 was just coming out and Warner Bros. was knee deep in producing the first movie. I was working for a toy company and we were developing toys for a movie tie in. I was given the chance to animate sequences for product and had to become familiar with the story, hence my boss gave me the first book to review. After I left it home one day, my wife read the book (she was at home sick) and asked me if I had access to the next book. With that I read the first story and was hooked. We promptly went out and bought the whole series that had been released up to that point and have been following it ever since. Now onto 'the Half-blood Prince'.

I'll try and not spoil anything for anyone so I won't reveal any specific details here. I liked the book. It had the familiar flow with the characters that we have grown accustomed to. Harry is a little older, a little tougher after the loss of his God-father and a little more on edge emotionally. This is a logical progression as Harry has really grown with the series and we see him here a teenager in turmoil. This book has more mystery to it and has us guessing what will come next. Relationships are a keep item this time around as we see Harry, Ron and Hermonie maturing quite a bit. Ron gets more time in this book as his part in the story grows a little more and we see Ron has more to him as well.

My one beef with the book comes in the 'surprise' that was thrown in for the ending. I had read a review that had mentioned it with out details so I kinda expected it to happen. My problem is it feels less like a logical part to the story but rather another jaw dropper simply for the effect (similar to Return of The Jedi's revelation about Luke and Leia being siblings, after we found out that Vader was Luke's dad in the previous movie. Whether Lucas wants to fess up or not, he did not have that as the original story and simply added it in for another 'shocker'. I mean come on Luke was fooling around with Leia in the first two movies. Now back to our book review.)

After digesting the book I can now see some sense to the way she ended the story. I believe she is purposely misleading us with some of the events to have a 'killer' wrap-up to the series. For those who don't know, there are supposed to be two more books in the series. So with that I'm not as jaded by the ending, but more hopeful that the clever J.K. is giving us a bait and switch to hide some of the juicy details that will come to surface over the next two books.

My wife and I have long debated that the series could have a whole second act after Harry, Ron and Hermonie 'graduate' from Hogwarts. Of course that would have to depend on them surviving that long. Following Harry as he goes on to college/young adulthood would be just as much a blast. Of course J.K. has said that this will be it and with all the money she has earned from the franchise, she is richer than the Queen of England, literally! Well, here is hoping.