Finished!

[beowabbit]

I finally finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (which my lovely plumtreeblossom gave me) last night on the T. Spoilers and commentary in my first comment below. (I didn’t want to just put them behind a cut-tag, since some people have LJ configured to auto-expand cut tags when they go to somebody’s journal directly.)

There are spoilers in the comments.

Comments

HERE THERE BE SPOILERS!

[beowabbit]

So I enjoyed the book as a ripping good yarn. But... Were there this many improbable coincidences in the previous books? (I remember thinking that when I read some of the others, so probably the answer is “yes”.) The one that particularly jumps out is when Harry, Ron, and Hermione discovered the secret of the Sword of Gryffindor in Gringott’s, but I know there were others. And there are just a few too many dei ex machinis. I knew Harry wouldn’t die, just because of the kind of books they are, but I have to say, waving the magic wand (so to speak) and saying “No, after all, you don’t have to die anyway, despite all the careful setup and foreshadowing that’s gotten us to this point” felt kind of hollow. (The last section of the book was good and harrowing despite that, but seeing Harry deliberately choose to sacrifice his life and then get a do-over was kind of unsatisfying.)

But that’s just nit-picking. (Admittedly, these books provide enough nits to feed an entire troop of primates!) I love the books and intend to start re-reading it when I run out of Discworld books, and I love the sweetie-pie who gave me the last book.

DA FTW!

[beowabbit]

Oh, and Kreacher’s almost instantaneous change of heart bugged me too, although it was set up pretty well.

[mattlistener.livejournal.com]

I was actually totally ok with the do-over after Harry sacrificed himself. Self-sacrifice had been carefully described many times as an ancient and powerful magic (or rather, alterer of magic). There was a fundamental change to Harry as a result (piece of V's soul in Harry destroyed), which is required by the mythology of death and rebirth. So I don't agree that that's an example of deus ex machina.

What bugged me most about the ending was the contrivance whereby the Sorting Hat was on Neville's person when he had an opportunity to kill Nagini. We know from Chamber of Secrets that a true embodiment of Gryffindor can draw the sword from the hat, so I'm fine with that and count it as a clever plot connection. But the hat was only on the scene because V decided a great way to show off would be to summon it from the castle, stick it on Neville, and set it on fire. Lame.

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

I was happy that the book did not include the one thing that annoyed me from previous books -- Mrs. Norris being re-introduced each time she showed up. I know she's a cat! Stop telling us that she's a cat!