My Problem With Harry Potter (Or At Least The Last Book)

Harry's confrontation of Death is brave, but it turns him
into an uncomfortable Jesus analogue.

I felt like a rant. Written 1/9/12.

I've spoken about Harry Potter before, both covering the individual books and a retrospective of the films. I've been a fan since I've been able to read, and the wonderful world presented by JK Rowling is still one that I consider to be one of the best in fiction. When it comes to which medium I prefer, then I'd have to say... Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, by Eliezer Yudkowsky. Seriously, read it. In canon? Well, that's why I'm writing this article. Yesterday I watched the last two Harry Potter movies back-to-back for the first time, and was blown away by the amazing cinematography. But I also realised some of the problems endemic not only in the films' adaptation of the series, but also in the book series itself.
     My biggest beef with the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, came during the final battle, in which Harry realises that he contains part of Voldemort's soul and must therefore face death in order to save everyone else's lives. When he does so, he has a moment in a heavenly environment where he chats with Professor Dumbledore, and then he returns to like in the nick of time to face down the now vulnerable Voldy and save the day. Hurrah. Well, not so for me. This is an issue that I'm going to cover when I get to the end of Ashes To Ashes, and it really surrounds the way religious themes are used in fiction. Now, as much as I dislike them, I am not averse to religious themes in general. What I am averse to is the use of them when said themes aren't present in the work beforehand. LOST pissed me off because it had always presented scientific answers to supernatural phenomena, and then had a freakin' afterlife. Ashes To Ashes, which had always been a secular comadream, suddenly became an issue of Angels and Demons. And here, in a work known for being burnt by Fundamentalists for its use of Witchcraft, our hero is not just presented as a messanic archetype, but also does what Jesus does in the Gospels. Why's that such a problem? It's simple, really. The character of Harry is too good for that. This is one of only a few series where I'm invested in the characters over the world and themes surrounding them, and so it felt terrible when a character as well-rounded and well-written as Harry was fobbed off as a Christian archetype.

Voldemort turned into a cardboard cutout.

     And that leads me to another problem with the Harry Potter world - it glorifies Death. I've never understood the practice in fiction of encouraging death and destruction as if it's an honourable thing to have happen to you. This runs through the books rather well; I sympathised with Voldemort rather a lot as a man so afraid of Death that he did evil things in order to live forever, to the point where he lost his moral compass and decided to take power with it. In the films and in the final book, all of that humanisation is thrown away. In his fevered afterlife dream, Harry sees Voldemort as a skeletal child, forever alone and beyond redemption or help. He becomes a cackling madman, and all of the motivation that we saw driving him in Book Six's flashbacks seemed to evaporate. Further, the scene immediately before Harry's sacrifice sees him suing an artifact known as the Ressurection Stone to speak with the "ghosts" of his dead parents and their friends. This short scene was a lot more frightening for me than anything Voldemort did; the twinkle in Gary Oldman's eyes as Sirius called dying "quicker than falling asleep." That may be so in a world with an afterlife, but it's a stupid lesson to be sprouting for the real world, where the end of consciousness is the end of you.
     It's maybe a bit more personal, but that's my problem with Harry Potter and what I love about Yudowsky's Methods of Rationality. The end of the canon series tries for something clever with the way it treats the core dynamic between hero and villain, and in the process it ignores all of the character development that those two had had over the previous six books/films. Harry Potter is not Jesus Christ, and the many people who die across the series cannot come back in the way that he did. I just wish the series would remember that too.

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Review: Good Omens

It's been a while since I did a book, isn't it?

Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

I’ve loved the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett for a few years now – that way that the the stories often transcend fiction and mess around with narrative certainties while being steeped in satire that lasts through the ages. Pratchett, a humanist who started writing in the 80s, is one of the greatest sci-fi-fantasy authors of his generation. I couldn’t, however, review any one of his books on their own without gushing madly about the entire series.

     Neil Gaiman, on the other hand, is someone whom I wish I’d heard of but unfortunately haven’t had the time or energy to investigate. My first encounter was only recently this year with the The Doctor’s Wife in the six series of Doctor Whom and immediately I was won over by the episode’s complete admiration not only for the series it was in, but also for all fiction. As a British ex-pat, Neil has a healthy admiration for both cultures. His greatest (and most well known) work is the Sandman graphic comic series, which I have never read by am in fact rather curious about. I’ll have to look into it.

     I’d heard of Good Omens but I hadn’t really considered seeking it out, not knowing about Gaiman’s writing style or tastes. Seeing the book recently in a book shop, however, I bought it and was not disappointed by its less than modest reception. The subject matter may be a little suspect for some more pious and possibly American audiences – the book surrounds Armageddon as happening in 1990s England.

     With a rich wealth of characters, it’s difficult to know where to start when discussing Good Omens. In a nutshell, the story follows the apocalypse as predicted by the fictional witch Agnes Nutter, who, after being employed to cash in on the trade of false prophecies, turned out to be completely right. Heaven and Hell both have their servants – albeit it’s difficult to tell which side is which. Two such servants, Aziriphale and Crowley (nee Crawly, who happens to be the Snake from the Garden of Eden), are charged with overseeing the Antichrist, who is brought to Earth eleven years before Nutter has prophesised the Apocalypse. Aziraphale, a camp book-collecting angel, has made good friends with his supposed opposite Crowly, a snake-like demon who adores the 20^th century.

     The Antichrist, Adam, unintentionally gains the powers to change the world according to his will, and thus starts creating magical things from nowhere; Atlantis rises from the sea, and Tibetans tunnel up through the Earth. Not helping things are the anthropomorphic personifications of War, Famine and Pollution (Pestilence retired after the discovery of penicillin in 1936), who are intent on causing the apocalypse no matter the cost.

     The duo have managed to turn in an exciting page turner that not only tickles my funny bone but presents itself as a satire of both political and religious dichotomy. The characters, while often unnecessary quirky or weird, are so well characterised that you can’t help but be charmed by their idiosyncrasies. As is often true in both their writing, the characterisations are so thickly woven into the story that it wouldn’t be the same without them; nothing is predictable but everything makes its own kind of sense in hindsight. One of my favourite things about the book is its unique running gags which punctuate it, with the results being blamed on Pratchett’s oft used ‘power of belief’.

     This is a book that I would refer to anyone and everyone, if only for the ability to say that one has read the book; sufficient nerd cred in itself. Good Omens is an example of terrific writing, excellently pitched humour dripping with timeless satire, and a set of characters so rich that they reach from the page.

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Opinion: The Harry Potter Film Series

As I've pointed out, I really love Harry Potter. The series is adaptive and challenging, taking a new generation of kids and exposing them to some brilliant writing. The series’ planning and forethought is often mindboggling to behold. However, like many children I didn’t start out reading the books – I grew up on the first three films in the series, directed by Christopher Columbus and Alfonso Cuaron respectively. I loved these films direction and their spellbinding worlds, as well as how the characters were portrayed by the ambitiously cast main actors. I started reading the books before the fourth film was released, and I was immediately hooked into this richer world. It’s no coincidence that I didn’t like the films afterwards as much, maybe because I now noticed the problems of translating the series from stage to screen.

     The first two films, directed by Christopher Columbus, had an eerie fantasy feel that reflected the relative innocence of the early books. The books here were only around 200 pages long, meaning that not a lot had to be cut out or changed to fit the new medium. Regardless, a lot of things were, but nothing that affected the story in major ways. Of the first three films, I prefer the second – it was the last on-screen performance of the late Richard Harris, whose performance as the earlier, more mystical Dumbledore fit that version perfectly. I also loved the chilling climax, where the threat felt very real.

     The third film, directed by Alfonso Cuaron took a more mature feel as the actors were beginning to out grow the ages of their characters. The film took a lot more liberties with the source material, especially in the omission of several key points affecting the series’ mythos that make certain scenes in later films more nonsensical. It also saw the arrival of Gary Oldman as Sirius Black, a character whose skilful introduction is carried over from the book. Most of all, I enjoy this particular film’s dealings with the book’s time-travel aspect, which really captured my imagination as a child. Michael Gambon’s new Dumbledore, while strange at this early stage, is better later on when Dumbledore takes on a darker persona.

    The fourth film was somewhat of a no-brainer for me, as it didn’t abuse the source material in any meaningful ways and actually introduced us to the film series’ badass version of Lord Voldemort. It was a more-or-less perfect translation from script-to-screen, helped no doubt by the book’s plot, which is pretty much a filler arc until the climax. The director, Mike Newell, was drafted in at the last minute and thus has no obvious grandiose takes on the series.

     The last four films were directed by David Yates, whose style took on a more adult and epic feel. After the fourth film, I became a lot more disconnected with the franchise. The seventh and final book came out just after the fifth film, meaning that all of the previous plot-significance that the previous films had omitted would hopefully be left in. The fifth film took a hell-of-a-lot of liberties – several major character arcs were omitted, making previous characters useless – an example here being Rita Skeeter, whose arc here in posting negative propaganda about Harry, as well as being revealed to Hermione as an unregistered Animagus, were left out. We never saw the character again, making her inclusion in Film Four a rather wasted opportunity.  

     The only Harry Potter film which has really disappointed me is the adaptation of Book Six, whose focus moved away from the mythos and more into an irritating adolescent drama filled with kissing, dating and other such trifles. I understand the desires of screaming fangirls and Shippers in the Harry Potter fanbase, but the film could have been so much better had it focussed more on the mythology set out in the book – one that examined not only our villain’s main motivations, but also shone some light onto Dumbledore. I was, most of all, worried for the adaptation of the final book – this film had been scripted with the final book in mind, and yet it leaves out so much that the final tale needs.

     A lot of fans were irritated when they learnt that the final adaptation, being around 5 hours long, would have to be separated into to two different films. I was intrigued and I had my hopes up – and I wasn’t disappointed, with a much more mature and considered directing style that perfectly captured the feel of the book. In places, the film was actually better – especially in the climactic battle, where the film did things that literature cannot, making it much more epic and exciting to witness. I also loved the final film’s treatment of Snape, who is the series’ true protagonist – the section where his loyalties were revealed was much more moving and poignant than I ever could have imagined.

     The all-star cast of the series help to cement its pedigree – among others, Alan Rickman’s Snape is a perfect translation and adds a new dimension to the character; Robbie Coltrane’s Hagrid also fits his character very well. The three main leads, despite being complete unknowns, show a genuine growth in both their characters and their acting ability.

     The series’ fourteen year legacy ended this July with the release of the final film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. But despite the films’ (and the books’) problems, Harry Potter will go down in history as the first time that such an ambitious project was undertaken – the first time that Hollywood even tried to adapt a series like this to the big screen. Its effects are everywhere – the recent Avengers Series, for example, wouldn’t have been possible without the proof and long-lasting appeal that the Harry Potter series brought with it. The series, now on its deathbed, is already working its way into the history books.

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Review: Red Dwarf: Better than Life

Following on directly from Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, BTL is another wonderful piece of writing. It combines elements from many Series Three episodes as well as having a surprisingly large amount of new content, some of which would be used in later episodes of the show.
     As before, it helps to have watched the show a little, but here is the point where having done so does reduce the experience. I found myself cringing when Polymorph was wedged inbetween original content, and found it hard to visualise Norman Lovett reading lines that were used, to my knowledge, by Hattie Hayridge.
    Familiarity issues aside, it's another great read that expands nicely on the first book while giving is smashing new original content and a good mix of stories from the show. Things to note are the brilliantly characterised Talkie Toaster and the eventual fate of our good planet Earth...

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Review: Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers

Published under the name Red Dwarf, most fans refer to this book by its joke road sign on the original cover, which is the title seen above. The book only very loosely follows the canon of the television series, mixing up episode plots to create a competent story in its own right, despite having many of the lines from the series. It also provides a little bit of a prologue to the series as a whole, that could easily be brought into the back of the TV series.

            The book is split into three miniature segments, themselves cut into very short chapters. The first segment is a prologue, the second is a mix-up of some early episodes and the third is after a supposed return to Earth. The prose is easy to read and easily blends in to the personality of the character being described, the narrator having almost no personality of its own. This makes the characters much more identifiable, as well as being a slight bonus for watchers of the series who can now see the interactions in a much deeper manner.

            Of course, it all boils down to this: is it a good book on its own? For me, the answer is yes. It’s got decent prose, a funny and enlightening story and the same deep sense of human understanding as the series. Does watching the series help? Yes as well, but it may be slightly annoying when one sees the differences in canon, one must realise that this is probably what the producers had intended in the first place.

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Review: The Time Machine

The Time Machine, By H.G.Wells (1895)

The oldest book reviewed on this website. But it's a goodun. This was the first time-travel story to incorporate the idea of a machine, paving the way for over a century of inspired time-travel drama.

It's 1895 (well, the present day on release, but we'll let it go for now) and an inspiring inventor invites ten of his closest friends to see him travel through time using his latest machine. He says that he will go into the other room and simply disappear, and they will meet again in a week's time.

Only one friend visits Wells the next week, and he returns, with a story to tell. The rest of the book is in first person, and describes how by the year 800,000 the human race had evolved into two distinct subspecies; the Eloi, a diminuitive race that only feel happiness and are blind to grief, and the Morlocks, sub-terrainian ape-men blind to the light and that feast on the Eloi every night.

The time traveller is, of course, shocked by this development. He puts it down to the seperations between the working class (the Morlocks) and the upper class (the Eloi). (This is before the advent of the concept of communism and class revolution.) To make a story out of it, the time traveller becomes friends with an Eloi called Weena, who is kidnapped by the Morlocks for food, along with his time machine. And so, he goes in and saves the day with nothing more than a box of matches, like the scientist he is.
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He returns to the past with a flower from Weena, but none of the friends are willing to believe him, except the one that saw the flower. Cue the credits.

It's a fun and influential book, written in appreciable language and a sense of intrigue that drives forward the plot where otherwise plot advancement would be absent. It's a good read, a necessary read, and the pinacle of all science fiction.

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Review: The God Delusion

The God Delusion, By Richard Dawkins (2005)

If there's any book that can be described as an atheist Bible, it's this one. Known throughout the world; banned in several countries, restricted in many others. It is, most simply, one of the most complete and damning refutions of religion I have ever read, a piece of beauty that will alter your view of the universe no matter whether you believe in a god or don't; even if it doesn't convince you that there's no god, you'll certainly think differently after reading it.

There have been many books against religion, but reknowned evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins is the perfect author for such a work, with his clear, anecdotal style and determination to make his points clear whatever the intensity or controversy. Dawkins makes no conccessions for religion, but neither is he scathing if it makes his arguments less valid.

If the sight of the words "God" and "Delusion" in the same title sends you running to your nearest priest in obvious disgust of this blasphemy, give the book a chance. Read it, without bias or agenda. Try your best to understand the points within, and then I can only hope that you will be more understanding of the logic and methodical superiority of the atheist viewpoint.

I met the book as an atheist. I left it a stronger one.

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Review: A Series of Unfortunate Events: Books 10 - 13

The Slippery Slope, By Lemony Snicket (2003)

The series reaches new heights (hehe) as we journey up Mount Fraught. Meanwhile, however, the cliffhanger ending of the previous book is speedily and intelligently resolved, and the two older orphans are forced to trek up the mountain following Olaf's car.

They come across an organisation known as the Snow Scouts, in which they meet the bully from Book Five. Taking up disguises, the two also meet another, unsuspected child - the seemingly long-lost brother of the Quagmires (again from Book Five), who instantaniously falls in love with Violet.

Quigley Quagmire's main use is as exposition, taking the two into the second-to-last V.F.D. (revealed mainly to be Volunteer Fire Department) base in Mount Fraught. There, they find an entire base, burnt to the ground. And a very slippery slope.

The youngest orphan gets rescued after some treachery and children speaking for the first time, as well as some sleds. The cliffhanger puts the three on a sled, speeding down a river, Quigley disappeared...

The Grim Grotto, By Lemony Snicket (2004)

Somewhat of a downer book; the beginning is promising enough, with the three being rescued by a V.F.D. submarine run by Phil (from Book Four), a deep sea captain and his daughter, Fiona (Klaus's love interest.) There, they help in running the submarine and aim to find a plot point known as the Sugar Bowl, something important to the V.F.D.

Violet suspects that it is in something known as the Georgian Grotto, a small area of undersea cave that is famous for being the only known habitat of a deadly fungus (or as I call it, Plot Point). The description of the fungus itself is a little dark; it grows in your lungs and suffocates you within an hour of entering your throat. This is especially frightening after we find that during the excursion, Sunny has contracted the fungus.

Meanwhile, Olaf has his own submarine, and has just "swallowed" the Queepeg into its dock. They are all taken prisoner, when it is realised that a long-standing henchman of Olaf's, "The Hook-Handed Man" is Fiona's brother. She ultimately betrays Klaus and the three for Olaf and her brother; something quite potent for the reader to deal with as well as the fungus.

They escape anyway back to their ship, and Sunny is able to shout, "wasabi," whichas it happens, is close enough to the antidote to work. The submarine's telegraph machine works again, and Quigley Quagmire is sending one. It is a series of clues, which is decoded to mean that they will meet him at Briny Beach (where they learnt the news of their parents' deaths all the way back in Book One). Both sides know they need to get to the last V.F.D safehouse, the Hotel Denouement, and Klaus manages to power up the Queepeg and leave.

What follows is a touching scene back on Briny Beach, with their old Social worker Mr. Poe turning up to ask them to come with him to the authorities (They committed some crimes in Books 7,8 and 9, remember?)  and they refuse, piling into the back of a waiting cab where the author's sister is sitting.

The Penultimate Peril, By Lemony Snicket (2005)

These books are getting awfully long by this point.


I'll summarise as follow: they are forced to disguise themselves as hotel porters and work in the hotel, where many people from both sides of the V.F.D. have gathered. Nearly all of the past books gets a nod and there's a lot of catching up, as well as some interesting literary experimentation going on.

Suffice to say that the book ends with the hotel burning and the three (Olaf as their capturerer) escaping on a boat.

The End, By Daniel Handlier under the pseudeonym of Lemony Snicket (2006)

We went through twelve books. One hundred and fifty six chapters. And there are fourteen left.

The menagerie of literary references never stops, but the literary style changes. The characters and their deeply entrenched senses of morality (or immortality) are shattered. And the ending is a downer.

But the ending works. It fits that even after The End, life for the Baudelaires is a series of unfortunate events. And them being swallowed up into The Great Unknown is perhaps the greatest literary triumph of all, reflecting that once one hits adulthood, all bets are off. Who knows where you'll end up.

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Review: A Series of Unfortunate Events: Books 7 - 9

The Vile Village, By Lemony Snicket (2001)

Spoilers follow.

When the Baudelaires' friends the Quagmires were kidnapped by Olaf in Book Five, their last clue was the acronym V.F.D., and what a clue it was. The search for the truth behind the acronym is the background plot for the second half of the series, as well as guiding their actions in Erzatz Elevator and this book.

And thus, the Vile Village in the title is one with the acronym of V.F.D, and while at first this is a driving plot point, it soon proves as futile as in the previous book (Very Fancy Doilies), this time meaning, "Village of Fowl Devotees", basically a cult for crows. There's an appearance by the supposed author's brother, who looks similar to Olaf. Olaf uses this as an excuse to dress up as a detective, and then kills Jaques. The Baudelaires are blamed, and thus the entire series is flipped on its head.

In the previous books, it was a case of Olaf disguising himself; now it is the three orphans that are on the run from the law, and Olaf (people thinking he's dead n' all) is off scot free. They can't rely on the authorities anymore, and this is where the series begins to tread muddy waters.

This is an interesting dynamic and it really works to shake off the idea that the series is formulaic; its steampunk ideology means that it can go anywhere, including reversing the roles of the characters within the system.

The Hostile Hospital, By Lemony Snicket (2002)

Following on from the events of the previous book, the three end up wandering in the middle of nowhere, and are picked up by another V.F.D, this time the "Volunteers Fighting Disease," a merry band of singers who attempt to cure disease through song. They are taken to Heimlich Hospital, where they work in a library of records and find out about Lemony Snicket. It isn't too long before Olaf catches up with them and they are forced to escape, accidentally burning the Hospital in their wake.

The book still clings to the themes of the earlier regime, and hasn't yet broken off into the newer period of the series. Olaf is disguised; so are his troupe, but in a twist, the Baudelaires are forced to disguise themselves again as troupe members.

The book ends on one of the second half's cliffhangers; specifically, packing themselves secretly into the boot of Olaf's car, driving off onto the plains.

The Carnivorous Carnival, By Lemony Snicket (2002)

My favourite book in the series, I read this on a long car journey. This is the first book to be truely independant of the old formula, with nice little nods to past books. Using props from the back of the trunk, (some of them used by Olaf in previous books) they disguise themselves as freaks to work in Calgari Carnival.

Apparently Olaf has visitied the Carnival every time the Baudellaires have moved, and so Olaf fermenently believes that Madame Lulu can find them again. However, the three soon realise that it is simply an illusion; an ellaborate light display that distracts Olaf while Lulu looks under the table at recent newspaper results.

The book is an exploration of the fraudical and cruel nature of sideshows, as well as revelations about the V.F.D as an organisation. She explains a little about an internal war within the series, but is eventually fed to lions as part of the carnivals entertainment (controlled by a smug Olaf).

Olaf steals the youngest of the three and drives off to Mount Fraught, leaving the other two rolling down the mountain in a speeding caravan...

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Review: A Series of Unfortunate Events: Books 4 - 6

The Miserable Mill, By Lemony Snicket (2000)

And, after the formula is affirmed, it is broken. The guardian in this story is in fact an organisation, the "Lucky Smells Lumbermill," and the dark absurdity, while not as depressing as the previous book, still works well to enhance the plot.

The plot is pretty much the same; they're left at the lumbermill by their social worker/accountant/coughing idiot and they find that life is terribly handicapped in many different ways. The previous book had dispelled any hope of a happy life, no matter who they stayed with. Klaus gets hypnotised; they nearly get killed by a circular saw and there's a sword fight with teeth.

The Austere Academy, By Lemony Snicket (2000)

Ah, the plot thickens. The only really important thing in this book is the appearance of several characters which form major roles later on, some villans and some colleagues.

Plot is as usual; children put in , watched over by and menaced by Count Olaf, who's disguised as . The only thing that this formula makes tiring is describing the damn thing; Handlier delivers up his usual mix of deadpan humor, strange narration and well-thought out if template-cut characters.

The Erzatz Elevator, By Lemony Snicket (2001)


Ok, ok, they're now with a lovely couple (or seemingly lovely couple - see below) with something a bit odd about them, in this case an obsessive slavery to fashion. Orphans are "in".


In other words its a bitter satire of the fashion industry and of the ignorance of the modern adult; in this case, however, it is the woman who is the negative; the male guardian is one of the more competant guardians they've had.

Aaaaand Count Olaf is is now a very posh bloke with an eyeglass (for extra POSHNESS) and is using puns and horrific subverted tropes to befuddle the three. Luckily they expose them and are unfortunately made to escape; this time, their social worker is getting slightly miffed.

Overview

It's a good continuation, inkeeping with the main themes of the series as well as introducing others and some plotpoints that will be important later on. Not with as much pace as later books, but generally less safe than the first three.

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Review: Harry Potter (7/7): Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, By J.K.Rowling (2007)

Well, we waited a good eight years, but we got there. Harry Potter's final journey takes him far beyond the confines of Hogwarts and out into the rich wizarding world, to places only hinted at in previous books. Spoilers follow.

So before he popped his clogs, Dumbledore told Harry about Voldemort's "horcruxes," items imbued with a part of Voldy's soul. That's why he's got the old immortality thing going on, and so Harry must destroy them all, like he destroyed the diary horcrux that held a young Voldy.

Assisted in true bunker fashion are his two friends, Ron and Hermionie (they have a long-suspected romantic subplot; it's irrelevant for now), mainly because at the end of the last book Hogwarts became under the control of Voldy's forces.

Now this book is a triumph. A majesty. The ultimate pay-off to the series; I only found one flaw with it, despite it being a big flaw (see below). It's language is noticeably more mature than the first book, and so are the characters and their responses to the world arond them.

Oh, and Harry is killed. Not at the end though. No, he goes to LIMBO and comes back again, because a part of Voldy's soul ended up in Harry. PARDON? Maybe I had this reaction because I'm an atheist, maybe I had it becausein Limbo there is an image of Voldemort's soul as a blackened corpse, totally dispelling all of the vital, "Mislead Human" aspect of his character. Good going, JK. I felt no sympathy for Harry by the end of the book. I don't know why, but his arrogance seen in previous books seemed to amplify when he conquered death twice. 

Otherwise, this is a brilliant book. No plot holes, no loose ends. Just the climax to a brilliant series of fiction.
I must say though. The film will be terrible.

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Review: A Series of Unfortunate Events: Books 1 - 3

The Bad Beginning, By Daniel Handlier (Lemony Snicket hereon in) (1999)

It's an archetypal tale to say the least; three children from well off parents are orphaned and are forced to live with their "uncle" (Fourth cousin three times removed, or third cousin four times removed; it's unsure) Count Olaf, who is after their tremendous fortune.

Overall, a bit deadpan and depressing for a children's book, although in this one it manages to balance the seriousness of the topic with the unconventional and dare-I-say slightly British tone that comes across in the book. The now famous style is that of a journalist with connections to the orphans, with hidden secrets about their lives ready to tell in this series.

The Bad Beginning sets the series off well; good characterisation, good plot, and a sense of loose comedy to the whole thing, despite wearing a shroud of deppression.

The Reptile Room, By Lemony Snicket (1999)

The plot thickens as the next guardian of the Baudelaires is chosen, and they are sent off to live with their herpetologist (studies snakes) "uncle" Monty. A rather benevolent fellow, and preparing to go off with the trio to Peru.

That would have gone to plan, if this series' frequent formula didn't require that Count Olaf appear in a paper thin disguise and con, murder and/or dazzle their guardian. In this case, he disguises himself as a herpetology assistant and kills Monty with a fork to imitate a snake bite. Terrible.

This series is unique not only for its strange style of writing but also for the many adult themes and literary references scattered about. It perhaps reinforces the moral that the well-read are the more morally guided: but also makes it accessible to older readers.

The Wide Window, By Lemony Snicket (2000)

Oh dear. It's book three of thirteen and already there's a drab lake filled with meat-eating leeches, a hurricane warning and a woman afraid of falling fridges.

Perfect material, then, for Handlier's unique style of a mix of faux-concern and deadpan humour. And that still shines through, despite being one of the more deppressing earlier books, with irony and absurdity everywhere, blended perfectly with the dark nature of the book.

This time the three are sent to live in a rickety old shack barely holding onto the side of a cliff, with their "Aunt" Josephine, whose husband died because the leeches in the lake sensed he had eaten recently and ate him. She later dies the same way, mainly because of a newly disguised Count Olaf as a sailor type; with some new henchmen in tow.

A good end to the introductory period of the series, it works well because the next book is less deppressing!

Overview

The introductory period of the series does well to establish the writing style and elaborate references of Handlier's work, as well as introducing the formula which will most definately be broken later on.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: The images were removed from this article because it was garnering an unfair amount of coverage for its images alone. 

Review: Harry Potter (6/7): Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, By J.K.Rowling (2005)

The last two books form their own finale, but in my opinion HPHBP is the better of the two. Strong, powerful, and although muddled by unecessary romantic subplots, it provides some of the best moments in the series.

Of course I am perhaps a little biased. This was the first book that I read soon after release, and on holiday at that. It's certainly an interesting book, and the series turns into an aging wine with all of its features blooming and wrinkling.

Alright, the basic plot is as follows: Everyone's taken their heads from their arses and saw that there's some funky shit going on in the world. Meanwhile, Voldy acts like a brooding serial killer and starts attacking non-magical people. Dumbeldore is understandably pissed and so starts training up Harry because he's the Chosen One etc. and in the end is killed by an Antihero.

Oops Spoilers! To be honest, I feel incapable of describing the next book without using spoilers, so I might as well start here.

Elsewhere in this story there are around four romantic subplots, each more awkward and unnecessary than the last. Maybe it's a way of identifying that they're getting older, but I just don't see it. She has done a good job representing the irrationality and short standing nature of teenage relationships, but this doesn't complement the overall sense of tension that results from the return and exploits of Voldemort.

Anyway. A good book, if spoiled by a few trivial things, and we get, erm, serious next tommorrow with the finale.

Review: Harry Potter (5/7): Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, By J.K.Rowiling (2003)

The longest book in the series at a whopping 800 pages, I don't feel that Order of the Phoenix deserves its length, which seems to drag on and on. The plot basically follows the (spoiler warning) full return of Lord Voldemort at the end of the last book. Basically Harry, his close friends and the powerful headmaster (Dumbeldore; an extremely important character that I feel ashamed for not having mentioned) are the only ones who believe that he is back. Cue torturous reign of horror on the edge of society, bubbling over into the fore-ground just when it's too late to do anything.

The titular Order is a group of "goodies" that are fighting against Voldy, and play a major part in the beginning of the book where Harry faces trial for using magic to stop a dementor that attacked his cousin and he while walking about before meeting a squib. And if that made sense to you, I'm so, so sorry.

Ok, I'll admit that there are a lot of aspects of the plot that I don't mention here. It gets rid of the one-sided potential of the earlier books while building a lot of tension for the serious danger that one can feel coming from the threat of Voldy's armies. So far the books have painted Harry as Jesus and Voldemort as Satan (more of these religious connotations on Sunday), and this is the first book that actually gets to the point where she is obliged to say, "Well everyone's human in the end heh heh".

Again, the prose is beautiful and detailed in a way that doesn't deter from the story. One can feel empathy for the characters, and that is perhaps the most important aspect. One feels frustration at the world's misbelief of Voldemort, and that's just brilliant.

I notice that in the reviews of book 2 through 4 I say that the next book is serious. Just to clarify; we get serious next week! :L

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Review: Harry Potter (4/7): Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, By J.K.Rowling (2000)

Things get series in this fourth installment, a transitionary novel of sorts from the lgihthearted nature of the first three novels to the darkness of the last three. Its plot is mainly independant; a legendary tournament between the three great wizarding schools that somehow Harry is elected for, because he's somehow extra-speshuw and then there's this whole revelation and a really important plot point that I don't feel at liberty to mention.

Rowling tormented her fans by saying that a character would die, and she was right, although it was luckily a character we hadn't heard of before this book (he was played by Twilight's Edward Pattinson in the film version, and was accordingly wooden). It also features some important last-three-book features as well as pay-offs for some of the features introduced in earlier books.

Erm... not a lot to say, really. As I remember, the story and writing quality was as excellent as one comes to expect from Rowling. Especially the climax sequence, which had a great sense of tension to it. I've always viewed this book as the story between two trilogies, and as that device (and an independant tale) it works very well.

Tommorrow, we get serious with Order of the Phoenix.

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Review: Harry Potter (3/7): Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, By J.K.Rowling (1999)

Here we take a step back from some of the bigger mythology and focus more on character, something Rowling does well. What results is perhaps one of the more intelligent books in the series, if not the most excitable.

The only book in the series that doesn't feature Lord Voldemort, PoA instead makes a villan of Harry's godfather, who supposedly betrayed his parents to Voldemort thirteen years previously. When it is revealed that this dangerous criminal has escaped, Harry is recognisably angry about it. And so follows a tale of misdirection and, strangely, time travel, in which our characters are much further explored as people.

When I began reading Potter the third film had just been released, and so my memories of it are sketchy. The book has less action or grand majesting rambling; just a lot of extra, accumulating detail and character drama. Like previous books, elements important later on are introduced here, and will continue to be introduced even in the final book.

This is the end of the introductory period of books; the end of the innocence of Harry and his friends. The next book is transitionary, into a more mature story, and this is one last savoury pocket of the innocent adventures that came beforehand.

What struck me is that there is no climax. The story doesn't seem to build; it just rolls on and the period that one may call a climax is too far from the end of the book. That's my only gripe with it, however.

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Review: Harry Potter (2/7): The Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, By J.K.Rowling (1998)

The first book I read without pictures; a story that delves further into the mythology of the series without coming over any darker than previous. It's as if the series is still keeping its cards close to its chest, slowly placing low cards that will add to more later.

I won't go into any more detail about Rowling's brilliantly immersive style; other than that there is as before a marked increase in maturity in the characters as the story progresses. She also trickles through small elements of story that seem only useful for diversity here but will play deep parts in further stories, like racial purity and other little ideas.

Of course, this marks the first time we see a form of Lord Voldemort, the evil wizard that killed Harry's parents (Well, he was a face on the back of a proffessor's head in the last book), in the form of his teenage self. We learn that for some reason Harry has taken on some of Voldy's powers, which seems interesting but not yet important to the plot.

Overall, this book is a necessary step between the introductory first book and the more serious third. It introduces some important mythology and most of all it gives neccessary advancement in the maturity of the characters.

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Review: Harry Potter (1/7): The Philosopher's Stone

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, by J.K.Rowling (1997)

If you don't know the basic story of Harry Potter, you've obviously been banged up in some Cuban jail somewhere, or had your head encased in concrete, or most likely both. But for those few who have suffered this unfortunate treatment, the basic idea is that the orphaned Harry Potter discovers on his eleventh birthday that his parents were in fact wizards, and tht he is famous for being the Chosen One who survived being almost-killed by a big evil wizarding type.

It reeks of familiarity and cliche, but for some reason it's strangely endearing. Maybe it's the realism and detail in which Harry's thoughts are covered; maybe it's the child audience. Whatever it is, it means that when one first encounters the series, one is hooked. I'm not just talking about some small compulsion, I'm talking about this book's brilliant ability to immerse the reader in it's world of magic and wonder.

Harry's early innocence is a good place to start the tale; naivity and youth work well together, and in the following books we watch as Harry's detailed personality matures and wrinkles. The fluency and detail of this book and of the whole series are perhaps I think what makes it so damn readable, and the immersive qualities of those traits make a good book.

While still being a good book, it seamlessly introduces a wildly varied backstory and a set of consistent rules that this magical world follows. It has identifiable drama, moments that will make you laugh and despair, moments that, due to their sheer beautiful simplicity, will have a smile erupting onto your face.

The atmosphere of the book is an interesting parallel to Harry's maturity, as it's light and idealistic nature dilutes as the book and the series goes on. You can physically feel that the book's style is different at the end than it was at the beginning, reflecting the change in the protagonist.

A book that should be read by all children who aspire to read properly, write fluently and expand their imaginations beyond the material world. Simply brilliant.

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Review: The Flight

The Flight, by Brian Malessa

My video on the subject was terrible; and so here I am, with a full written review.
     A chilling, moving book on a rarely touched-upon subject, The Flight is perhaps one of my favourite books. Malessa's debut is ambitious in principle; representing the plight of the population of East Prussia in the early 1940s as they were forced to evacuate, across Nazi Europe. It flips the tables; no longer are the Nazis the evil boogeymen of other fiction. But the true skill soon appears; it doesn't glorify the Nazis, or try to apologise for them. It exposes the humanity on both sides; the cold, steel-edged humanity that drives our protagonists forth.
     Ida is a mother living on the main peninsula in East Prussia. Her husband is a soldier in the German army; her oldest son is in the Hitler Youth. When Operation Barabarossa backfires, the Russian Armies take an early revenge on East Prussia, and Ida and her two other children are forced to flee across Germany.
     The last few chapters of the book deal with the circumstances post-war, with Ida and her husband being stuck on either side of the divide between the Soviet Germany and the Western Allies. The end of the book is truely heartbreaking, for reasons I won't go into, but I think serves to reflect the book's main themes.
     The passage of time is quite interesting. When the atmosphere is light and peaceful, as near the beginning, one can often find that several months go past per paragraph. When the stakes become higher, time seems to slow down and this really improves the effectiveness of the work.
     This book is a well-researched, well-written piece of historical fiction that does justice to the events it describes, and that is perhaps why it is my favourite.

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