which_chick | (no subject)

I have finished The Book. I am now going to discuss The Book in detail, so people who do not want to know what happens in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince had better NOT hit the damn cut, okay?

Overall, this book is a hell of a lot tighter and more seamless than either book 4 or book 5. I don't know that she has an editor, but something has come together because this is really a more gripping read than either of those. It's got a better focus and tons more juicy details and, well, realistic teenaged snogging, if it comes to that, in this book, so Yay!

There's an annoying typo (site for sight) on page 10 of my copy and a couple of other errors that the proofreaders missed... oh, and Bill Weasley's straight, more's the pity for fangirls everywhere. He's hooking up with that Delacour girl and they're to be married.

I went BooYAH out loud twice in the first forty pages, as Rowling threw down serious grist for the mill. The first was when she admitted that the Minister of Magic (Fudge, to start with, later the new guy) TALKS TO THE PM!! How cool is that?!?

Second was when Bellatrix and Narcissa go to Snape's house to make him promise to watch over Draco and, if Draco does not succeed at the task set for him, to himself perform the task. Snape so swears and Snape so does, in a really quite delicious bit of action at the end of the book. Hooray! I didn't think she'd do it, but she did. Good on yer, Rowling! Also that scene takes time to answer a number of fannish questions by having Bellatrix question Snape's loyalty. Yowza!

Things I was not expecting: Remus gets a girlfriend. George and Fred are wildly successful in business. The following sentence, which I SWEAR I have read in fanfic more than once: Harry, however, had never been less interested in Quidditch; he was rapidly becoming obsessed with Draco Malfoy. (For real and no lie. Page 409 in the US edition of the book, top half of the page. I about bust a gut on that one. Also, Harry hooks up with Ginny but later breaks it off with her because of the whole I Have To Kill The Dark Lord thing. Fucking destiny gets in the way all the damn time, doesn't it?

Things I was kind of expecting: Harry inherits Grimmauld Place and Kreacher. Rowling kills Dumbledore -- this I only expected because, I, er, read spoilers regarding the making of book on character deaths in England along about May, 2005. Actually, she has Snape kill Dumbledore, as that's what Draco is supposed to be doing (It's one of those good any way you slice it tasks for Voldemort -- if Draco succeeds, he wins. If Draco fails, he can kill him and thereby punish ham-handed Lucius for fucking up that business at the Ministry.) and he can't/won't manage it when faced with a 100% incapacitated Dumbledore. I was impressed with that, as it leaves Snape very fuzzy and arguable for the wait between books. (I'm still cheering for him to be a good guy, if a somewhat unpleasant good guy -- what better way to solidify his position with Voldemort than by killing Dumbledore? That is about as good as you can get for proof positive of loyalty to the dark side and it'd go far to make him look devoted to the Dark Lord and his promises of Unlimited Power! (Sorry. Palpatine moment, there.) Also, he'll have doubting Bellatrix converted to True Believer, because she's going to HAVE to note his willingness to enter into the damn oath with Narcissa at the beginning AND the fact that he had good followthrough on that play. I also want Draco to turn state's evidence but it'd mean he'd have to quit with his family and I'm not sure that's possible no matter what legions of fanficcers would like to believe.) Hooray for between-book arguing.

Interestingly, as we can see from the beginning of the book, Narcissa appears to actually care for Draco, which is nice. Also interestingly, this is the first time we see much of how Draco feels about the whole business of working for the Dark Lord. He appears to be showing a considerable amount of strain over his task because he's in the bathroom bawling with Moaning Myrtle about how miserable the whole thing is and about how he's in a no-win situation from hell. If this isn't writing made for fanficication, I don't know what is. I loved it. Lots. I believe we may be heading towards at least partial Draco-redemption, but, y'know, I want to believe...

Also, Snape is the Half-Blood Prince. I've considered Snape for the role since we got the damn title and I decided I was right when Rowling (about two hundred pages in) tells us that the Half-Blood Prince's book is a potions text with, y'know, SURPRISINGLY useful handwritten instructions in the margins on how to make better potions. Raise your hand for a beating if you missed that more than a page ro so after the instructions about crushing them beans with the flat of the dagger instead of cutting them. I'm surprised, though, that it's not more widely know that he's half-muggle (or half-something, anyway) because he's a Slytherin and they're practically obsessed with breeding... but then, nobody really notices Voldemort's muggle parent either... it must be willful blindness or something.

And while Harry doesn't appear to care who R. A. B. is at the end of the book, I think most of us with two or three neurons firing can parse that fairly easily as Regulus A. Black, can we not?

Anyway. I give it two thumbs up and a solid BooYAH for readability.

Thoughts? Post 'em if you've got 'em.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Update: I told my brother Joe I was done with the book and he said (exact quote) "Who gets it next?"

And I said "You really want to know?"

And he said "Yes"

And I said "Dumbledore... Snape kills him." No sooner had the words left my mouth than I realized the it in "Who gets it next?" referred to my copy of the book. Oops.

This is one of the things I love about JKR.. all the hints were there, but still I was convinced that the HBP was TMR

Agree with your thoughts on Snape. The argument between Dumbledore and Snape was (although maybe I'm wrong and this is revealed later - I've not finished the book yet) likely (in my version of the stories, anyway, which may differ from JKR's version) Dumbledore convincing Snape that Snape must kill Dumbledore as part of the plan to gain Voldemort's trust and thus defeat Voldemort - that kind of sacrifice sounds to me like the kind of thing D. would do.

I've always, always thought Snape was essentially good, although often misguided - eg, his harshness on HP does seem to come from good intentions, although heavily informed by his feelings for JP. To have the story ending with the one person that Harry hates actually turn out to be evil would be a terribly weak ending I feel - as weak as The Usual Suspects, where the fabulous twist that everybody gets surprised by is that the wonderful storyteller is *actually* a wonderful storyteller... *yawn*

I totally thought HBP was TMR even despite the obvious potions goodness. Because, hey, half-blood, right? Although the idea of him having given himself two nicknames still didn't sound right.

The Slug-spilling-beans part was brilliant. I thought he'd taken too much of the stuff (two tablespoons = one lucky day! Not "a gulp" = "several hours"!), but it worked out amazingly well. Although "I feel good about going to Hagrid's. I think it's the place to be tonight" totally sounds like something I'd expect to hear coming from a member of a corporate sales force.

I loved loved loved the loose ends at the ending. Snape-Draco fanfic, indeed. And I could not come up with who had the initials R.A.B. Thanks.

The thing was, we already DID a novel with Tom Riddle's Book. I figured she wouldn't do that again. And, well, the sheer amount of mention the Very Helpful Potions Annotations got had to be for a reason. Had to be.

We also get that Harry inherits the Black townhouse and chattel, which he's going to need because I betcha the fucking house elf (whom I despise as a character) is going to be able to tell us useful things like what the hell dear departed Regulus was doing in his final days and, y'know, if he might have possibly hid any Snorcacks (or whatever -- horcruxes? My copy of the book is at La's house.) about the place.

Meanwhile, Snape and Draco are hiding out at DE central, dirtying their hands further because I betcha killing Dumbledore is not going to excuse them from the REST of Voldie's DE dance card. He strikes me as a very "What have you done for me lately?" sort of Dark Lord. Some people are never satisfied. In that rather gruesome set of circumstances, I bet Snape and Draco are turning to each other for uncomfortable comfort because neither can really be sure if the other is really, really on the proper side but they haven't anyone else to turn to anyway. (For those of us who really like Snape/Draco and don't get enough of it... this hyar book is manna from heaven, I say. Manna from heaven.)

Ficcers, start yer engines!

Oh, I wish they would. I wish they would. I was trying to find a ficcer you'd pointed to recently, but the bloody LJ's aren't searchable, y'know, and I hadn't bookmarked it. Did stumble across Amanuensis, though; was that her? A quick glance seems to show mostly somebody/Harry stuff, although there is a surprisingly good Luna/Cho.

I thought of the "Hey, Horcruxes at the Black place, wonder if any wandered off with Mundungus?" thing really briefly while composing my reply. I wonder if Harry is going to spend any time living there in the next book.

With Hermione, Ron and Ginny. Talk about shacking up... but that is off the topic, which is, c'mon, people, it's been 48 hours, where is the new Snape/Draco stuff and why am I not picking it up on Google?

Hmph.

Hrm, fic I've read recently? Not much, really. I plowed through a pile of stuff by

ellen_fremedon the other day because she posted an update to something -- use the webpage she links to, it's easier to find things there.

I also ran a search (google, I think) to turn up the one where Snape keeps Harry and Draco as his pet boys (more or less) to keep them alive during the tail end of the Dark Lord's reign. The usual flavors, of course: angst, bdsm, non-con, etc and so forth. It was uneven, but hit enough of the high spots that I re-read it happily anyway. I've no idea who wrote it, though... it's one of the ones I know when I read it.