Book review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Note: This review WILL contain spoilers about Harry Potter book 6, or anything about life in general.

Title: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Author: JK Rowling
Review:

So, finally, the 6th book is here. Once again, another one of those filler books before she comes to an "explosive conclusion" in book 7. While this one was a little more straight forward in terms of the plot (Nothing like those twists here and there in book 5), I still feel that the author is dragging the book at the beginning. At roughly page 400 or so, the twist finally appears, and it finally proceeded at a nice pace. However, in this book, there isn't much "evil" generally. Voldy didn't appear much, if at all. The book focused more on the relationships between students of Hogwarts, as said later, and the past of Voldy. While the plot isn't all that fantastic (it's rather boring at times), the character building, made up for it.

Since book 4, the author seems to have some kind of a dark streak, with someone dying at least. This book is no exception. As everyone should know by now, thanks to the media, the unexpected spoilers and stuff, Dumbledore died in this book. It seems, that on top of having a teacher who cannot hold the "Defense against Dark Arts" post every year, she seems to be picking people off every year too. First was a boy, then one of those side-characters, and now, finally, one main dude is gone. What's with that? Can't everyone just live in peace?

The series, itself, has finally degraded into a DBZ type of book, where Harry must find and destroy 6 objects in order to defeat Lord Voldemort. Original, no doubt, but it would have been a little more interesting if he dueled with Voldy one on one without all that crap which he must do. Of course, finding 3 (3 were gone) of those protections or Horcruxex, as they are called, will be Harry's Solo mission in Book 7 (At least, it seems that way).

Another fact to note about Book 6 is how lamely the Prince was discovered. I think everyone was expecting the cover boy to be some kind of uber 1337 dude appearing and stuff, but instead it's snape, who's introduced during a weakly scripted fight against Harry. But then, this could be the author's point all along, finding no way to introduce the half-blood prince without some glamor, she's forced to introduce him a little lamely. Personally, I would have preferred that over some long scripted dialogue or something.

One last noteworthy point is how the author seems to have placed everybody, and anybody together. I'm talking about relationships and such. Dean and Ginny, Ron and Lavander...the list goes on. It seems as though every character has to have some sort of relationship, as though this is some sort of fan fiction you read online. For the uninformed, many fanfictions online love to hook people up with each other (For example, my personal favourite: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1496833/1/ [contains adult material..=D]). I mean, Tonks and Lupin, Luna and Longbottom. The list seems to get longer and longer with every page turned.

Oh well. I have to say I did enjoy the part where Ginny and Harry were going out (see link above. Rowling got her idea there? LoL).

Apart from all these annoyances, the character building, as usual, was excellent. You cannot expect more for a children's book (Might have had some sex if it was someone else, like Sidney...LoL), other then a good plot, and great character development. While the plot, once again, was rather dull, one reason is simply because it's another filler book before we reach book 7, known as the final book to all. Hopefully, the book does end on a high note, those endings that we have come to know in books 1 to 3. It was only from book 4 did Author seem to finally realise "Hey! I'm writing a series here! If this goes on, I won't be able to end it" Of course, I have nothing to support my claim, but perhaps it's true. The first three books showed that the series could be another one like the Wheel of Time series, one which could hit book 15 easily. I think Rowling just want to put a cap at 7. Smart move, or it would be boring. I mean, how many books do you need before you kill the dark lord? >_>

It escaped burning, partly because it isn't my book (I read more of the microsoft version), but if the ending sucks crap, like the NJO series one, I won't buy another children book for a long long time....

Score: 5/10