"Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" out tomorrow!

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by Guynemer
Yes, of course, Slughorn.

What Rowling did with Draco was really quite remarkable.

She took this sniveling little stuck-up horse's ass who we all hate, and escalated him from petty bullying to full-blown pure evil. And at the same time, she actually made him sympathetic, something which had seemed impossible up to this point.

I still don't think he's going to amount to any good whatsoever, despite what Snape did for him. No matter what Riddle decides to do to him or his parents, there is no way Draco turns to the good side.

I hate that little twerp. Even though Rowling made me feel a twinge of sympathy for him, I hope Riddle AK's him into oblivion. Or Bellatrix Cruciatuses him into madness. Or Grayback just rips out his effing throat.

Afraid to use Voldemort's name?

ACK!

[Guynemer]

No. I just think calling him Riddle cuts him down a couple pegs, self-important prat that he is. Dumbledore always called him Tom to his face, you'll remember...

[Guynemer]

Speaking of Riddle, that sequence of him pre-Hogwarts was chilling. Displaying all the tendancies of a future serial killer... animal torture/mutilation, doing "something" to other children... gave me the creeping willies.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Maybe it was a wascally wabbit?

[monolith94]

The awfullness of the Harry/Ginny romance, the perfunctoriness of it, the complete lack of drama and interest only serves to prove that we, harry/luna supporters, were in the right, and Rowling just plain messed up. This latest book really, really suffered from a lack of Neville and Luna. Not so much Luna, even, but come on, where was Neville? It's like the DA just disintegrated, kind of pathetic.

But good book. Not as good as the previous, but good enough. Interesting drug references, with felix felicis representing 'good' tripping and the cave representing 'bad' tripping. This really was Harry's first year in college, I suppose. I hope the next is better. And Harry splitting up with Ginny makes far more sense than Peter Parker putting his relationship with Mary Jane Watson on the skids.

[Imran Siddiqui]

The awfullness of the Harry/Ginny romance, the perfunctoriness of it, the complete lack of drama and interest only serves to prove that we, harry/luna supporters, were in the right, and Rowling just plain messed up.

HAHA! Sore losers!

The Harry/Ginny romance was definetly not awful. What kind of drama would you like? A love triangle? Come off it. Harry/Luna would have been ****.

This latest book really, really suffered from a lack of Neville and Luna. Not so much Luna, even, but come on, where was Neville? It's like the DA just disintegrated, kind of pathetic.

The book was over 600 pages. You want another OotP?

[Guynemer]

While I agree with you, Imran, about Harry's love live, I agree with Monolith on the shameful lack of Neville this time around. At the very least, he could have gotten himself a girlfriend.

[Immortal Wombat]

Neville/Luna in book seven...

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Guynemer
While I agree with you, Imran, about Harry's love live, I agree with Monolith on the shameful lack of Neville this time around. At the very least, he could have gotten himself a girlfriend.

And how long did you want the book to be?

Neville will feature in Book 7. He just wasn't important to the plot in Book 6's story.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Guynemer
Speaking of Riddle, that sequence of him pre-Hogwarts was chilling. Displaying all the tendancies of a future serial killer... animal torture/mutilation, doing "something" to other children... gave me the creeping willies.

It made me think of Peter Wiggin a little bit.

[self biased]

you could tell the seeds of harry and ginny had been planted in book two. i'd have been disappointed if they'd not gotten together.

[monolith94]

The Harry/Ginny romance is ****ing anemic. There's absolutely nothing to it. He likes her, turns out she actually still does like him, they kiss, and then that's it. There's nothing to it. They just get along and she hangs out. NOTHING and BORING. This is not drama, this is the ****ing day to day diary of harry potter.

Did I want another OotP? Well, I at least wanted another book of the same high standard. This new book, while interesting doesn't have the same feverous energy and palpable mystery. The new characters don't have as much depth as the characters introduced in the last book and the new suspense isn't as good. There are some really great action scenes, but there isn't nearly as much building characterization as the previous book. Hermione/Ron change a pretty fair bit, but at the beginning of the book we see a shockingly large amount of immaturity which hasn't been fully tackled by books end.

And Phlegm? Kill me now. That was lame. Ginny was so incredibly immature. They were really great ****ing hosts.

Ugh. Not as good as Ootp and the more I write about it the more convinced I get, so I'm going to stop writing about it now.

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

Harry/Luna always looked stupid.

Not to some (who haven't posted so much on this thread)... who consistently argued that it was going to be the case.

I have an uncomfortable feeling I might have been one of them, but I honestly can't remember.

There's not much I can say about the book that hasn't already been said. I suppose I liked it, but I would have preferred it if things had happened differently.

Dumbledore is comfortably my favourite character in the series, so it kind of sucks that he won't be in it anymore. At least I hope he isn't - it'd be uber cheesy if he came back.

Far too much tedious romance, IMHO, but it didn't kill the book.

Neville, Luna, Fred and George are very interesting and/or entertaining characters, so it's a pity they aren't in it more. They're certainly more interesting than Ginny, although JKR is dropping hints that she'll have more to do in book 7 so we'll have to wait and see where that goes.

Surely RAB is Sirius' brother. To seriously suggest anything else seems a little silly, but the idea of it being Bertie Bott is pretty amusing.

Much of what has happened previously would seem pretty stupid if Snape stayed evil, IMHO, but I'm not sure I want him to redeem himself. That too would seem very cheesy. Perhaps this is why I'm a little disappointed in how things turned out in book 6. What happens between Harry and Snape is obviously going to be a huge part of book 7, but I feel like whatever happens will leave me unsatisfied. Let's see what happens, though.

[FrustratedPoet]

I think me and monolith are of a pretty similar opinion. The same thing happened after OotP came out, as I recall.

[FrustratedPoet]

Best joke in the book?

I liked the U-NO-POO gag, but I'm childish like that.

"You don't spell 'Augury' O-R-G..." also made me laugh out loud.