order of the phoenix

Book five, year five at Hogwarts for Harry and company. Now that the dung has hit the ventilator, its high time to put the band back together. Against the backdrop of Harry and his class of fifth years studying for their O.W.L.s (Ordinary Wizarding Levels) lots to deal with has come to Hogwarts--and the magical community in general--and Dumbledore also appears to have his dance ticket full as well.

After struggling with Harry a number of times over the years, its seems as though Lord Baddy McBadguy (or he-who-must-not-be-named) may be taking a step back from openly trying to murder Harry in this one; it appears that sewing discord and infighting amongst his rivals is the newer, less risky course of action. Voldemort seems to be hanging back, and taking his time to catch up on some of his old unfinished homework. here's me winkin' at yer

Some of the members of the English Ministry of Magic appear to caught up in this discord, which manifests itself as the Ministry trying to strong arm those that don't agree with them. For our heroes, this comes in the form of a new teacher, sent by the Ministry, to bring the school into line with their views. A simpering, troll of a woman who tries to clamp down on those who disagree with the Ministry's take on the state of affairs surrounding Moldywart.

This, of course, pisses off Harry, Hermione and Ron (along with most everyone else) to no end. And you would expect, antics then ensue. But Boldysort isn't done, and by the time we reach the end of this book (another fat one, by the way) its pretty clear that there's going to need to be some ass kicking up in here real soon.

The Order of the Phoenix tees up the storyline for the last two books, and is not to be missed. Its a little long in the middle parts, and could have been trimmed a bit, but I'm sure the hardcore fans won't feel it. I know my kids ate it up when I read it to them years ago, and were only too happy to have the additional material to hold them over until the next volume came out, and a few more nights having it read to them.

Wondering what other differences the American version of these books may have from their English predecessors, I took a look around and found that the English books don't have the chapter head illustrations by Mary GrandPréas do the American books. No illustrations at all, other than the cover jacket and a map of the Hogwarts grounds.

They are in the process of releasing illustrated versions of the books now. Its a slow process; only three books have been released thus far. Jim Kay is doing the illustrations and they are really nice.

goblet of fire

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is book 4 and halfway through Harry's Hogwarts career. The title goblet has a pretty small part in the story, but I will admit, its a better title than "Harry Potter and the Triwizard Tournament," which sounds a little dumb. So I can imagine that was considered and then rejected for its dumbness. But who knows, it may have been the name of the book in the UK.

Harry is getting older, and so are his problems. This year, the Triwizard Tournament comes to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry after a hiatus of many years (centuries?) geeks, I'm looking at you The idea of the Triwizard Tournament is to encourage international wizarding and witching community cooperation. Rowling tells us how select students arrive from two separate European magic schools and stay for the year at Hogwarts, with their respective headmasters. Sounds grand, and very cooperative buuuuut... who's running things back in France and... Bavaria? geeks, help me out Maybe the headmaster's flit back and forth; but they do seems to be around whenever the storyline calls for them.

And whats up the rest of the select bunch of students that each school brought that don't get to represent their school in the Triwizard Tournament? I assume they're enrolled in classes at Hogwarts, but that's not mentioned. Or maybe I'm wrong. nerds?

This book is a fat one! Clearly, Rowling know understands the depth of her power, her right to pen whatever she likes, regardless of length or complexity. Rowling has ascended to god-like writer status at this point. And you know, becomes a brazilianaire. 

The crap gets real in this book, don't miss it.

And can I get a holla' for Mary GrandPré for those illustrations, yo? 

 

prisoner of azkaban

Harry & Hermione riding a hippogriff

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is book three in the series, and the prisoner...well, you'll have to the read the book; no spoilers here.

Harry is back for his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, along with his friends Hermione and Ron. This year we meet the dementors, those creepy, ragged cloak wearing, angel-of-death looking, soul sucking monsters that act as prison guards at Azkaban Prison. The dementors start hanging out at Hogwarts, presumably to insure the safety of the students and to watch out for the escaped prisoner. You can see why these creepy bastards became such a popular Hallowe'en costume.

Harry is also learning more about his own history, and the history of his dead parents. Harry's third year also means more advanced learning for him and his classmates, and one gets the feeling that the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, is keeping a special eye on Harry, given his history and the murmurs of dark wizards that are cropping up more and more.

In a lot of ways, Prisoner is a filler book; a transition book between what has come before and whats coming next. Rowling is laying groundwork in this book by introducing us to Harry's history, the dementors, defensive spells, predicting the future, and the followers of Voldemort, know as Death Eaters. In fact, Voldemort himself doesn't appear to be the main focus of evil in this story, but rather its Voldemorts followers that Harry finds himself pitted against. Foreshadowing-filler book may be a better description for this one. I would not, however, recommend skipping this one.

chamber of secrets

Harry Potter, book 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, came out in 1998. I'm pretty sure that I had no idea, and I'm guessing that most other folks didn't either. My oldest would have 4 in 1998, and didn't really discover these books until 6 or 7. By that time, 3 or 4 of them were out, and when the next one came out, we picked it up in the store, and there may have been a little buzz then, that I became aware of. A few years later, there were lines, kids dressed up, the religious types whining about occult stories and the indoctrination of children. It may have been the wait between books 4 and 5; prior to that they were one a year, but it was a few years before the 5th book came out and people were in a tizzy.

Ah, good times.

I think were pre-ordered the rest of the series on Amazon, and they were delivered on the publish date.

The Chamber steps in up a notch from book one, and we're starting to see the issues and problems these young wizards and witches have to deal with growing with them. The secret in the Chamber of Secrets (other than a creepy monster) appears to be prejudice. The mystery revolves around who is opening the secret chamber--apparently in an effort to turn loose said creepy monster and the magical equivalent of ethnic cleansing. Hint: its the bad guy.

On the positive side of the equation, we've got Harry, his friends Hermione and Ron, and their mentors. We also have trust, faith, honor, and loyalty at work.* Its a manual for how to do the right thing, and an ongoing lesson about how stupid kids can be when it comes to telling the truth to the adults that are trying to help them. Why would religious types have any problem with this?

Get your 'good vs. evil' on. Read this book!


* Sounds like half of the Scout Law. The rest are probably in this book too.

sorcerer's stone

A blast from the past.

I've just re-read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the first time in 10 or 15 years. The last time I read a Harry Potter book, I was probably reading aloud to one of my kids, and they are both in their twenties, so I guess its been a while. I had a feeling that I'd come back to them to read them to myself at some point--it’s a different experience reading them aloud to your kids. That time was probably delayed by the huge impact the movies made on pop culture... and then the VHS tapes and DVDs, which they watched over and over until just a few years ago. I've been feeling a little saturated.

Then my niece decided to have a Harry Potter themed birthday/Hallowe'en party a few weeks ago, and it all came back: the fun, the characters, the adventure and the tragedy. So when I finished the sequel to The Three Musketeers, and I was looking for something fun and light,  suited for fall and early sunsets, Harry Potter seemed like a good choice. nice work on the party k!

I think I cranked through this book in three days. In fact, I've just finished the second one without finding a few minutes to write about this one. J.K. Rowling struck a chord with children and adults alike when she put together this story of an orphan boy of magical birth. Its got all of the hallmarks of a classic epic: heroism, mystery, adventure, coming of age, mentors, reluctant heroism/burden, true friendship, evil nemesis, special powers, and destiny, to name a few.*

Some have said that when they read Harry Potter as an adult, especially when the re-read the books, they find that Professor Dumbledore's treatment of Harry is shameful, even abusive, but to those who suggest that I will point out two things: its a story, and secondly, taking this stance is to project our value system of what is right and wrong, or perhaps more to the point, what is a appropriate for an eleven year old child to deal with, but Harry Potter is not a child from our world, and he doesn't live in our value system. Harry lives in a universe where children have immense power, and with great power, comes great responsibility. You and I are simply not equipped to judge, but I would suggest that Albus Dumbledore is.

For me, the latter point is the more cogent, and closer to my heart but maybe the former is all we really need. meybe y'all shud r'lax lil' bit

Yeah, so relax, and enjoy some Harry Potter. I'll come on back and write a little something about book two pretty soon, but in the meantime, I'll be visiting in on year three at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Read this book. To your kids if you can. I would suggest somewhere around 6 to 8 years old depending on how mature they are. The stories are complex and may be hard to follow for younger kids. Younger kids may also be frightened at some points, it does get tense now and again. Have fun!



* Check out The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell for more on this. (Its in my 'great's column to the right!)

twenty years after

Twenty Years After is a follow up or sequel to The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas, so its part of the D'Artagnan Romances, so called. The finale is titled The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later. From what I understand, this is a big book, and includes three parts (or at least is broken into volumes that way.) 

According to Wikipedia, the three parts of Ten Years Later are independently called:

• Part One: The Vicomte of Bragelonne (Chapters 1–93)
• Part Two: Louise de la Vallière (Chapters 94–180)
• Part Three: The Man in the Iron Mask (Chapters 181–269)

But more about that tome when I read it, back to Twenty Years After. The story is complex, as are all the Dumas stories I've read. He relies upon his readers a great deal, and given that this, like many of his novels, was written in series, he needed to help his readers keep the story straight, so he occasionally speaks directly to the reader, reminding us where we are in the story as we move along. This, along with the language, gives the story an old-timey feel, as you'd expect with a classic from this period.

Twenty Years doesn't move along as well as The Three Musketeers, the plot is good, solid, it just isn't as fun as The Musketeers. Dumas seems to struggle at some points to resolve issues he's written himself into, and while he does it, it doesn't feel as seamless as with Musketeers or Monte Cristo. In many way, it seems as though Dumas answered the call of his readers and gave them more Musketeers. Some, but not all, of the characters are the same. Where they are the same, they bring with them their old feelings, as one would expect, but occasionally, the intervening years has softened some of those feeling. It is those insights which make Dumas stand apart. Just writing in serial alone must be complex and require much forethought; its seems to me that the thought put into these stories is what elevates them.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I knew that The Man in the Iron Mask was a sequel to The Three Musketeers but I wasn't aware of this book until I bought that book, brought it to Italy, and discovered in the front matter that I was missing something. In a word: no wonder. This book was good, it just wasn't as good as it could have been, and I can see why it is generally overlooked. le yawn

I'll probably take a break from Dumas in the short term. This book took me three weeks (or more?) to read, and I could use a break. I also don't know where I put my copy of the next one, I think its in a box somewhere.