Timewaster's Guide Archive
Departments => Books => Topic started by: The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers on July 25, 2005, 01:07:13 PM
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reference: http://www.timewastersguide.com/view.php?id=1118
I'm in the middle of it, and I've accidentally read spoilers. I weep for my future.
ANywya, read it now!
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I'd like to point that, when I wrote and sent in the review, a lot of people still hadn't read it yet. Sorry if there was a spolier - tired very hard to avoid doing that.
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I know it's unlikely, but would it be possible to get a TWG review of "1/2 Blood Prince" from the perspective of someone unfamiliar with the Harry Potter series?
I'm rather interested in comparing how a new reader would rate it as a standalone book. Of course, a new HP book isn't intended to be read in that way (6th of a series and all...) but I'd like to know whether it would be a good starting point
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My immediate response would be that no, it would not be a good starting point at all. There are some important events that are definitely either ongoing (meaning that you wouldn't completely understand them without the previous books) or they are so greatly enhanced by the previous books that they would be worthless without the other books.
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Reading the first couple of chapters Half-Blood Prince without having read the other books in the series would be rather confusing and would ruin many of the surprises in the previous books.
Sorry, there aren't many shortcuts in the Harry Potter series.
The Harry Potter books are really just one continuous story, not-so-much episodes in a series. And in a likelyhood will be published as one large volume some day.
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That'd either be one hefty and unweildy book, or a book printed in a dictionary-sized font. Either way, the notion frightens me.
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I loved the pairing up bit. It made me cry and gave me new respect for Rowling's writing skills. It was exactly the right thing to do to wrench my emotions at exactly the right moment.
Unless the reviewer isn't talking about that scene where in fact only one pair pairs off (and another is reaffirmed)...the other pairings aren't at all sudden and have in fact been building over the entire series. (Have you been paying attention?)
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I'd like to point that, when I wrote and sent in the review, a lot of people still hadn't read it yet. Sorry if there was a spolier - tired very hard to avoid doing that.
To be clear, I didn't mean this REVIEW gave me a spoiler, just that before reading it, I've learned the most spoiling thing there is to know.
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Someone told you about how Harry Potter dies in an electrical fire? Or do you mean the part about Hermione's mysterious pregnancy?
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SE, so did I. I've not even got close to reading it, and I've been informed of the end spoiler... so I'm going to leave it to one side for a year, so that when I read it, I'm not constantly thinking of the spoiler.
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I was actually thinking about how Ron is secretly Voldemort and How harry has a multiple personality disorder and Dumbledore, Hagrid, and Snape are all really him.
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Ah. As obvious as that was, I'd hardly consider it a spoiler.
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There was only one pairing that I thought was sudden, but I won't say which it was in order to avoid a spoiler (but I think it's fairly obvious which one I mean). But yes, absolutely, the onther ones have been building up for the whole series.
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But then your review should have said "a male and female character" rather than "the male and female characters" :)
Anyway that was building for a long time, too, but there was no reason for Harry to know anything about it.
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Anyway that was building for a long time, too, but there was no reason for Harry to know anything about it.
That is the funniest thing I've heard all day.
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I stand by my original phrasing. While only the one felt really forced, (and if Harry ddin't know about it, we didn't know about it, therefore it came out of nowhere to us, even if it had been building off the page), I still feel that she piled in a lot of them at once. But I see your point nonetheless.
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well, there ARE things we know that Harry doesn't know in that book, so that's not the best argument
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Yes, there are many things that Harry doesn't know that we don't - that is my point exactly, and that is the entire basis for the series - but this particular one just felt a little forced to me. That being said, I am LOVED the book. I am one the biggest fans the Harry Potter series has, so I am be no means belittling it. This particular plot point involved my favorite character, so it just felt a littel weird to me. By I am rereading the book right now, and I'm sure I will warm up to it.
Does that make everyone happy?
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I also value the characters above most people I know in real life. I just finished the book, and I haven't cried so hard since yesterday when I realized what must happen.