Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

[Yoni]

Got it this morning and really cant put it down, I don't want to give anything away at this stage but it is promising to be better than Goblet of Fire (my favorite to date).

Once people have read it I would be interested to see opinions of the sixth book in this series?

 

[Ukle]

Agreed... So far have read the first 5 chapters and it is a cracking good read so far.

Only problem is the speed I read I am having to leave it alone for the rest of the day or else I would of finished it by 4pm today

 

[Yoni]

yes same here ...... although it was a struggle to put it down

 

[Doh_boy]

Tis good

Dunno what chapter I'm on but they've just got on the train.

 

[Sissyfoo]

Just finished it and it is by far the best in the series in terms of excitement, adventure, plot and err...surprises!

The only trouble with finishing it so fast is that I have to wait 3-4 years for JK to finish the series. Ooo...how will it end?

 

[Doh_boy]

Nearly finished

This seems a lot funnier than the others.

 

[Yoni]

going to bed to finish it now

 

[Yoni]

i cried silly me

 

[haarewin]

was at work all day yesterday, managed to get halfway through last night. reading a bit more before work today

 

[Sissyfoo]

i cried silly me

I got a teeny weeny lump in my throat!

 

[haarewin]

omg its sad
i had tears in my eyes all through the last chapter and had trouble reading.

 

[Ukle]

Ok completed it now and 'nice' ending, will make for potentially a great final book, although how it will be the final book with everything that needs to go on I dont know... guess it will be a 1000+ page monster

 

[Sissyfoo]

Can you believe she hasn't even started writing it yet? C'mon lady!

 

[Ukle]

Its going to take 2-3 years anyway so a few months wont hurt

 

[Dr_Weasel]

Spoiler

Hmm, I kept hoping he was going to do a Gandalf and magically be alright again. Im not sure where she gonna go with the last book. I hope its not going to be Harry Potter meets John J Rambo where he just decides hes going on a one man vengance mission. I also fail to see how shes going to fit all this into one book. I have a bad feeling that the last book is going to be cack.

 

[Sissyfoo]

Spoiler

I have a feeling that we will either all be left feeling short-changed with the ending or the book will be bigger than the bible and yellow pages combined. Personally I am hoping for the latter...

I'm not sure what direction she is going to go with but I suspect that they will be back in hogwarts for their last year. I can't believe that after all this she is just going to let them finish off without having graduated from wizarding school. Oh well, 3 days down 3 years of speculation to go. ~sigh~

 

[Ch3tan]

Wow, what a good book. Makes up for the last one

Been a long time since I took a day just to read and didnt want to put a book down.

 

[Fana]

Spoiler

Dumbledors patronus is a phoenix, maybe that is a clue to the eventual permanence of his death. Hope we get an explanation in the last book as to why D trusted Snape so inexplicably, despite all that was speaking against him - maybe Snapes killing of D was staged to allow D to go into hiding and be able to operate without fear of further assassination attempts. Doesnt seem unreasonable that a wizard of D's power could fake his death

Anyway, was a nice read, and Rowling has some good qualities as a writer, altough she also has an annoying habits of introducing completly new information at the last second so that you can never reason your way to why things are happening etc, making it easy for herself with the plotline, and her characters arent exactly very deep, they are more like caricatures. She knows how to keep the pace up tho, and to keep the reader turning pages Couldnt put the book down for the last third of it.

 

[Ch3tan]

Spoiler

It also seems quite reasnoble to me that Dumbledore would have allowed Snape to kill him, knowing that Snape had made an unbreakable vow.

 

[Sar]

Bought it on Friday afternoon, finished it on Sat night - great book!

Thoughts:

Spoiler

Harry is the final Horcrux. It makes sense, as it would explain why:

1. Harry survived the "attack" - Lily was the required sacrifice.
2. Voldemort seemed weaker afterwards.
3. Harry could sense Voldemort, and see into his head.
4. Harry's blood was required to re-animate Voldemort.
5. Dumbledore was "delighted" when Harry told him #4 (because he suspected as much).
6. Harry can speak in Parseltongue when he's not a Slytherin.
7. Voldermort has marked him as his "equal" (because in a way he is, as he carries 1/7th of Voldemort's soul around in him).
8. Voldemort is now trying to kill Harry (to re-unite the pieces of his soul now that his body is whole again).

I think in order to kill Voldemort, Harry is going to have to die as well, which is where I think JKR is heading.

Oh, and I also think that Snape & Dumbledore have staged DDs death, to convince Voldemort that Snape is a true Death Eater, and to allow DD to work behind the scenes.

 

[Tenko]

I came to the same conclusion about Harry, Sar.

 

[Fana]

Aye, I thought about that too Sar Its pretty likely

 

[haarewin]

i dont know about:

Spoiler

harry being the final horcrux, i just cant make sense of why JKR would do that.
i also dont think dumbledores death is a big fake.
i think dumbledore knew about voldemorts plan (draco had to kill him), and that snape had made the unbreakable vow. dumbledore had to die so his "inside man" wouldnt. im still convinced snape is on the good team, after what he says at the end of the book - about harry needing to use silent spells.

 

[Ch3tan]

Spoiler

Yeah for some reason I still dont believe snape is a bad guy, but harry being the final horcrux makes a lot of sense. We shall see, it would make a very dark ending to the series if that was the case. Lets not forget its meant to be a childrens book, Rowling will probably got with a fluffy route and fuck it up.

 

[Ukle]

Spoiler

Ok Dumbledore is dead JKR has already hinted that he definatly is, as to Harry being the final Horcrux well it would make sense for another reason JKR is on record as saying she always wanted to write a series where the main character dies. But it doesn't make sense for a lot of reasons in the book e.g. why would voldermort be trying to kill him.

As for Snape got an idea whats going on but not going to share it as not seen it written elsewhere and if I am right I dont want to spoil it for anyone else.

 

[Sar]

Well put it in a spoiler block then!

 

[Ukle]

But everyone reads Spoiler blocks As said not going to say hope I am wrong as I will have spoiled the final book for myself.

 

[Ch3tan]

Well you wont spoil anything for anyone, as no one will know till they finish the next book, when it eventually appears.

 

[Meatballs]

Spoiler

Its so obvious that snape is still a good guy, you have the unbreakable vow (which he probably didn't realise was going to be taken so far by draco's mother), the taunt/teachings at harry at the end, the fact that dumbledore still trusted him explicitly (dumbledore is the kinda character who is always right even if it doesn't look like it at the time), he also probably knew the predicament that draco was in, and probably saved his life by killing dumbledore.

As for harry being a horcrux, its pretty poor reasoning. Voldemort heard the prophecy, and went to kill harry, why would you put your soul in someone you are going to kill? Voldemort would have been wise to complete his set of horcruxes before attacking his prophesized enemy, and probably had ample opportunity by this time to kill 7 people to make them. It may turn out that he was going to make his final horcrux with harry's death, but because of the protection and some accidental magic put his soul inside harry - he probably would have dropped the item he was going to make his horcrux however, and theres no hint about that afaik in any of the books... But I think that reasoning sucks

 

[Sar]

Spoiler

Better reasoning than your own though

It would be arrogant enough of V to do as I said, because he knew that that piece of his soul at least would unwittingly be protected by DD, thereby keeping V alive.