Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows...*DEFINITE SPOILERS*

[Leisha]

Woohooo! It's here!



Well, I figure I may as well set up the inevitable book seven thread now, at exactly the same time as it's officially released.

Personally I can't wait to finally read it and discover the answers to the mysteries.


So, once you've read the book (however long that takes), what are your thoughts? Did you like it? Was it everything you expected and more? Was it lousy? Were you disappointed?


I'm not getting a copy of the novel until tomorrow, so I'll have to wait a while before I can make up my mind.


Warning: There will probably be spoilers in this thread (duh!).

[Lenny]

Two words, the first sounds like "clucking", the second is "super-duper-uber-amazing-brilliant-great-fantastic"!

Took me just shy of 5 hours 31 minutes, and boy was every minute worth it.

And so the spoilers begin:

First of all, I WAS SO VERY NEARLY RIGHT!! I said that one of the twins would die, so, of course, I back the losing horse. 50/50 chance and I get it wrong! Typical!

The rumours of Harry being the seventh horcrux proved [in my mind] surprisingly correct, too. We finally learn the truth about Snape, which is nice. And big shocker, didn't see it coming - Snape had one hell of a crush on Lily. Poor thing. And we find out about Dumbledore's death.

One thing that really seemed to stand out in DH, was how detailed Rowling's world is. It may not show in the other books, but in book 7 it is really clear how much thought has gone into all the different aspects of a world in which Wizards and magical folk live, especially where goblins are concerned. It's just a shame that there wasn't more of it.

As for the ending, I liked it. I really did. For a series that has had people crazy for a decade, the climax was nothing short of wonderful. None of this poncy "and it was all a dream" rubbish, but rather a satisfactory ending.

All in all, well worth the read (though I doubt that anyone needs to be told that!)

Oh, and one more thing - some of the deaths really did surprise me. The first one especially. Who'd have thought that the first character to go wouldn't be a magic user?

[BrightFeather]

im not gonna give out and spoilers,
it was very good short but good,
and quite unexpected

[SJAB]

607 pages is short???

[The Ace]

Yup, at least we can tell the Weasley twins apart now, and Neville surprised me.

[PTeppic]

Roughly 6 hour fifteen minutes: finished!!

I don't know if I'd say anything actually surprised me, per se, since there was so much option for directions to go yet still end up in the right place. There seemed to be a lot of exposition, which has been the case with the latter couple of books, rather than action, and then the action itself is wham-bam and over.

[PTeppic]

6:15 (give or take, and I really need some breakfast as it's now lunchtime!!)

Having already raised a thread about questions I was expecting to have answered, I think most of them were answered, few not in generally the way I expected. Some surprises though, including a very interesting line of dialogue in the Epilogue. In fact, I'd say it was really a very well written piece, in that it tied up so many ends, including ones you never quite realised were loose, from books as long ago as PS. Also, some quite nice false trails, leading to unexpected mid-point switch-backs before the sub-plot pay-off.

Agree about the first death though - unexpected. And we never found out more about the Dursleys (though I might have missed it).

[PTeppic]

Something I've just realised...

I always assumed that Dumbledore could see Harry when he was under the Cloak. Now it would seem that he couldn't, as it's effectively the most perfect cloak ever devised. I'm trying to think if the Marauder's Map showed him when wearing it, which would would allow that someone else's spells might show him up, e.g. Dumbledore's.

Also, JKR reputedly asked for Kreacher to be included in film-5, yet didn't enfore Sirius' pair of mirrors or the locket within Grimauld Place. Since the house elf's main role in 7 was to help find the locket, it seems a bit of a pointless request from JKR, surely?

[Balinor]

Spoilers

I didn't think that that twins and Dobby really counted as main characters.

The end was a bit too happy. Only 4 characters of note died (Dobby, Fred, Lupin and Tonks) and the rest all got together.

Also, the best part in my mind was the battle for hogwarts

[PTeppic]

Spoilers
I'd have thought all the Weasleys counted as central, with one of the twins admittedly being a popular prediction. Mad-Eye and Hedwig also died, though obviously less central. I thought it was a clever idea to have the fight in stages at the school. It'll give the cast and crew something to look forward to come film 7.

[purple_kathryn]

spoilers

Well I guess it depends on who JKR considers main characters - hedwig, Lupin, Dobby, Fred (OMG poor George!)

Did anyone else nearly cry at the Snape Pensieve thing and Harry giving Albus the middle name Severus? Gah I'm getting weepy thinking about it.

BTW I loved the ending and anyone who complains about it being too happy needs slapped! - nothing wrong with a happy ending - it's a book for kids FFS :P

//end spoilers

btw is really necessary to hide spoilers in a thread marked possible spoilers?

[PTeppic]

Agree with the ending. I didn't find the deaths emotional, though I'm a sucker for underdogs and love triumphant (so was close earlier in the finale). Even, of all things, Kreacher leading out with his "army"... However, I did think it was right after the main stuff to do what she did; kind of avoided the detail but still captured the essence of what was going to happen in clever way. Pirates of the Cariebbean 3, though? The end-of-credits bit most people missed?

Fair point about the spoilers... from my view. Others?

[Lenny]

Talking about spoilers, I've just been looking through threads on other forums with spoilers about the book... and not one that I can find is correct.

[The Ace]

All I can say is "Professor Longbottom ?"

Almost as good as the hype

[Lenny]

Makes sense though, doesn't it?

How long did it take you?