2005; 652 pages. Book 6 (out of 7) in the “Harry Potter” series. New Author? : No. Genres : Fantasy; YA; Adventure. Laurels: Winner – 2006
British Book of the Year Award; 2006 Royal Mail Award for Scottish Children’s
Books for Ages 8-12; 2005 Quill Award for Best Book of the Year. Overall Rating : 9*/10.
It’s going to be a good year at Hogwarts for
Harry Potter.
For starters, he’s entering
his sixth year there, and I guess he’s now an upperclassman, since
the normal full term for studying there is seven years. That means he's now eligible to take
Apparition lessons, the somewhat dangerous but extremely useful art of
disappearing from one spot (“disapparating”)
and popping up someplace else (“apparating”).
Harry’s also been appointed to
be the Quidditch captain for House Gryffindor.
The upside to that is that those who want to be on the team will be
sucking up to him. The downside is that those who don’t make the team might hold it against him.
Then there’s the rumor flying
around Hogwarts that Harry’s “The Chosen One”.
That happens to be true, but it also means everybody’s going to be looking
at him like he’s some sort of freak. Except for Headmaster
Dumbledore, who's said he'll be giving Harry one-on-one lessons on the things he needs
to know in order to fulfill “the Prophecy”.
Good luck, Harry. You might not like some of that information that Dumbledore's going to impart.
What’s To Like...
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth, and next-to-last, book in J.K. Rowlings’ ultra-popular fantasy series and for Hogwarts habitués that means the times they are a-changin'. A lot of background information about Lord Voldemort’s rise to infamy is revealed to Harry, courtesy of Dumbledore’s “Pensieve”, which gets used extensively here. The final showdown is approaching, and Harry needs to prepare for it as best he can.
At the same time, Harry and
his friends are growing up, and feelings of “teen love” are sprouting up all over
the place. Quidditch takes a back seat: Gryffindor’s
final and deciding game is missed entirely by both Harry and the reader. The Order of the Phoenix plays a lesser role
than in the previous book, as do Hagrid and the House Elves. Classes outside of the Apparition lessons
and Potions receive less attention, giving way to a frantic research effort to
figure out what horcruxes are. The tone of the book is understandably dark, although some bright spots still shine through, such as Arthur's term -of-endearment, "Mollywobbles".
As always, J.K. Rowling weaves
together a bunch of plot threads to keep you turning the pages. These include: a.)
how did Dumbledore injure his hand, b.)
what mysterious dark object is Draco trying to get repaired, c.) who poisoned Katie Bell and Ron Weasley, d.) how and why does Draco periodically
disappear, e.) who’s side is
Snape on and what is his “Unbreakable Vow, f.)
what memories is Slughorn hiding, and g.)
why is Harry having trouble getting into the Room of Requirement? But the most important question of all is: who
is/was the Half-Blood Prince? It
is a credit to J.K. Rowling’s writing ability that all these threads are
addressed and answered.
There are a slew of characters
and critters, both new and recurring, to cross paths with. I thought there was a subtle object lesson in
how Fleur was treated. Anglicized spellings
are nicely converted to American-ese, but British phrases remain untouched,
including wotcher, wozzgoinon, pip pip, innit,
Blimey, taking a shufti,
and a dab hand. Really, fellow Americans, we need to
assimilate those into Yank-Speak, especially that last one which I’d never heard
of before until encountering it twice in the past two months in books I was
reading.
The ending is both somber but satisfying. None of the main baddies get their
comeuppances, but the overarching “good-vs.-evil” conflict is now in the
spotlight, and we get a glimpse of what is coming in Book Seven, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I for one am looking forward to it.
Kewlest New Word ...
Shufti (n.) : a look or reconnoiter, especially
a quick one (a Britishism).
Others:
Prat (British,
slang); Satsuma (n.); Tea Cozy (n., phrase).
Ratings…
Amazon: 4.9*/5, based on 27,206
ratings and 7,916 reviews.
Goodreads: 4.57*/5,
based on 2,500,382 ratings and 44,933 reviews.
Excerpts...
Harry could not get near the shelves. He stared around, looking up at the boxes
piled to the ceiling: Here were the Skiving Snackboxes that the twins had
perfected during their last, unfinished year at Hogwarts; Harry noticed that
the Nosebleed Nougat was most popular, with only one battered box left on the
shelf. There were bins full of trick
wands, the cheapest merely turning into rubber chickens or pairs of briefs when
waved, the most expensive beating the unwary user around the head and neck, and
boxes of quills, which came in Self-Inking, Spell-Checking, and Smart-Answer
varieties. (pg. 116)
“I haven’t found one single explanation of
what Horcruxes do!” she told him. “Not a
single one! I’ve been right through the
restricted section and even in the most horrible books, where they tell
you how to brew the most gruesome potions — nothing! All I could find was this, in the introduction
to Magick Moste Evile — listen — ‘Of the Horcrux, wickedest of magical
inventions, we shall not speak nor give direction. . . .’ I mean, why mention it then?” (pg. 381)
“And now, Harry,
let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.” (pg. 56)
There’s very little to nitpick
about with a megahit like Harry Potter and the
Half-Blood Prince. It is
sometimes labeled a “children’s fantasy”
book, but I think “YA fantasy” is more fitting. The book is incredibly clean – I noted just
five instances in the entire book, and those were limited to
three “hells” and a pair of “damns”.
One minor plot thread is left
unresolved: the identity of the mysterious “R.A.B.” who absconded with a
horcrux and left a note for Voldemort.
But I assume this was deliberate, as it also serves as a teaser for the next
book.
My last quibble is both the
biggest and the shortest: the fox dies. (pg. 20).
9 Stars. To put things in perspective, Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince set records both for Amazon pre-orders (1.4 million copies) and sales within the first 24 hours after release (9 million copies) on July 16, 2005. That latter record would last for two years before being shattered by – guess what – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
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