Harry Potter, lots of snogging, and a half-baked potato. (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Adult edition) - J.K. Rowling)

Member Name: CaptainD

Product:	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Adult edition) - J.K. Rowling
Date:	19/09/05 (154 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Not all that bad...

Disadvantages: ... very predictable, action sequences not as good as in the previous books

Well okay, there’s no half-baked potato in this book. But there is a lot is snogging, in fact that word is chronically overused in this book.

But first…

Background

If you’re not familiar with the Harry Potter books, let me give you a little background. When he was 11, Harry found out that he was a wizard, and who his parents really were. He also found out that he himself, at the age of one, had become a celebrity in the wizarding world by somehow not only resisting the attack of Lord Voldemort (or, “He Who Must Not Be Named”), the biggest, baddest wizard of them all, but in the process taking away almost all of his powers. Harry starts to attend the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Over the years he continues to battle Voledmort, who is regaining shape and power, and calling those to him who are still loyal to the dark side. Often Harry is not believed, but he has staunch support in the form of Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, who is famous for being “the only wizard He Who Must Not Be Name” is afraid of, and his friends the Weasleys: best friend Ron, prankster older brothers George and Fred, younger sister Ginny, among others. Also there is his studious friend Hermione, who is always arguing with Ron, so you just know they’re meant for each other. Not all in the school like Harry however, especially not Potions teacher Serverus Snape and the boy who made himself Harry’s enemy from the first time they met, Draco Malfoy.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Well, now you know the background story – though I’d be very surprised if you weren’t already a fan and aware of it anyway, as I can’t see anyone jumping into the series at book #6. That said, ironically it is probably one of the easiest of the series to read without any prior knowledge, despite the fact that Rowling doesn’t patronisingly go over past details as she has in the previous two books. I don’t recommend reading them out of sequence anyway, of course.

The problem I had with this book is that it seems so formulaic – you expect an unexpected visitor to take Harry away from his awful relatives during the summer holiday, for him to spend the rest of it with the Weasley’s, for him to know something’s going on or someone’s evil when no-one else can or will see it, for there to be a big finale involving an important character dying… and they all happen. It doesn’t help that with Rowling trying to convince us that this is a more grown up book by the inclusion of romance and… ahem… snogging (does anyone really use that word anymore?!?!), she proceeds to give us an opening chapter written almost childishly, during which the new “muggle” (non-magical) Prime Minister meeting the new Minister of Magic. If you’re expecting something significantly more than we’ve had in the previous books, you’ll be sadly disappointed. Then again, if you’re expecting more of the same, you’ll get it – but it all feels too familiar by now. There were no real surprises in the whole book, and I had the identity of the Half-Blood Prince sussed early on.

In the last 2 books, it has been painfully obvious that while Rowling excels at writing exciting set pieces, she struggles when it comes to slower narrative and building suspense. That is also the case here, but her flair with the the action sequences seems to have largely deserted her – perhaps the pressure to finish this book to a deadline sapped her creative juices. Whatever the reason, the book suffers. While the writing style is still extremely easy to read and has a certain page-turning quality, many of the main characters now come across as weak, stupid, or sometimes both, and I felt a lot less empathy for them than before.

It’s hard to recommend this book but, if you’ve already read the first 5 books, you will of course need to read this one as well. It’s not terrible, it just feels like we’ve read it before in the earlier books. Younger fans of course will continue to lap it up and I’ve seen several reviews by not-so-young fans who really enjoyed it too… maybe I’m just hard to please? :-D

In the final analysis, yes I will still be reading the seventh (and presumably final) book when it comes out, but I do hope it’s better than this one.

Incidentally, the "Adult" edition has a different cover - that's it as far as I'm aware.

I don't know if there's a bookshop that WON'T have this at the moment, but on Amazon.co.uk it's listed for £8.99 (RRP £16.99 according to Amazon) - the "Adult" and "Children"'s version are listed for the same price. The CD Audiobook (read by Stephen Fry) is listed for £39.00.

Summary: The 6th book in the series is also the weakest... but you still need to read it to find out what hap