As the series has progressed from its humble beginnings Rowling's writing as well as her characters have noticably matured. While "Order of the Phoenix" was an entertaining read, it was excruciatingly long, and unnecessarily so, stretching out the magical world's misunderstanding of Harry to the point where it became dry and dull. Not so in "Half-Blood Prince". Here, Harry has matured into a 16-year-old wizard who is more emotionally composed, thus allowing more of the story to be devoted to the fight against Lord Voldemort, and eliminating unnecessary passages with regard to his anger. While the action in this novel is certainly less in comparison to some of the previous books, the dialogue and flashback scenes with the pensieve are more than interesting enough to compensate. Rowling also takes this opportunity to introduce Horace Slughorn, a more realistic Slytherin graduate than those we have come to know, for rather than being pure evil he is simply obsessed with fame.
This sixth book in the Harry Potter series is the best yet, hands down, for its incredibly unique displays of character development and fantastic depth all within a concise novel. To all those who question the book's literary value or think much of its 652 pages is simple filler, I wonder: what more could you expect? If you desire a truly amazing story of fantasy to bring you back to the days of childhood imagination, this novel is for you. If, however, you are looking for a complex work of literature, I suggest you avoid this book and only judge it for what it's worth--and it is truly worth a great deal.
-Written by Matt |
