NO SPOILERS! I promise!
If there's one thing I can be relatively sure of, it's that almost anyone who reads this will have at least a passing familiarity with Harry Potter, either through the books or through the (enjoyable but inferior) movies. And virtually everyone in the western world is aware that a little over 1 1/2 weeks ago, the seventh and last Harry Potter book was released after a media frenzy unmatched in the history of publishing. Truth be told, I was a little bit surprised when I walked into Wal-mart on Saturday, July 21, and was able to pick up my copy and check out in just a few minutes... but I guess the Potter-maniacs had descended on the store when it opened for an hour at midnight to sell copies of the book.
About a week before the last book was released, I read several interviews with Jo Rowling's editor at Scholastic in which he talked about how it had always amazed him that she constantly planted seeds and clues to the later books in earlier ones. Since I was wrapping up the book I'd been reading (a fairly mediocre Star Wars novel, Darth Bane: Path of Destruction) I decided to go back and re-read the previous 6 Harry Potter books before reading the last one, to see how the whole series fit together.
I discovered Harry Potter a bit late, when the first two had been released in paperback. Originally I had planned to wait for each to be released as a paperback... after all, could the books really be worth the hype? Then they were recommended to me by Don Brown, and I read the first two, and enjoyed them so much that I not only started buying the later releases in hardback, but I also went back and picked up the first two in hardcover as well!
I've tried to figure out what it is I like about these books (beyond, of course, the fact that they're fantasy, like many of the books I read.) Part of it is the world that Jo Rowling has built - a world of wizards, witches, and magical creatures that lives alongside the normal world. Part of it is how she builds the story and mythology as the books progress... each book reveals new information, but it all fits together and never feels like she's trying to write herself out of a sticky spot or throwing something in just because it's cool.
Another thing I particularly like is the fact that, as the story progresses from being relatively ligt and innocent in the first book to increasingly complex and dark in the later novels, so too do the main characters progress and grow. They actually grow into fairly believable teenagers and, by the latter parts of the last book, young men and women, both as a result of the passage of time and their experiences. But best of all, none of them are perfect... they argue, do the wrong thing sometimes, and occasionally make really stupid mistakes... kind of like the rest of us. Many of the adults are similarly complex and flawed, as well. And that makes them much more interesting to me.
So what did I think of the grand finale? First off, there will be no spoilers... I'm not going to reference anything specific, because I know there's folks out there who haven't yet read the book and want to be surprised by what unfolds in its pages. I was very satisfied with how it all wrapped up... Harry's final adventure builds wonderfully on what has happened previously, while introducing new characters, situations, and concepts. But make no mistake - this is the darkest book of the lot, with a great deal of injury, torture, and death... and the casualties include a number of characters who've been with us for a long time. But at the same time, this book contains many of the same positive messages that the previous ones did: care about people and be there for your friends, and do the right thing rather than the easy thing.
It's not a perfect book... it starts with a bang, and then is fairly slow throughout much of the middle section, only to blast into almost non-stop action and revelation after revelation in the last part of the book. But by the end all of the questions are answered... some of those answers were pretty much what I was expecting, and others were total surprises. Twists and turns galore, and ample action - exactly what you'd expect when war breaks out in the Wizarding world. But in the end - it seemed to me that this was the right way for it all to end. (Even if the epilogue, which picks up with some of the survivors 19 years later, is a bit too sugary and cute.)
I've read several pleas that Jo Rowling continue her stories in this world she's created, either by writing the backstories of some of the characters or moving into the future with the descendants of the current ones. Personally, I hope she leaves things as they are and moves on to other stories and characters and worlds. Harry Potter's story is complete, and the series has ended on what I consider to be a high note. The rest can remain in the imaginations of the readers.
Oh, and if it's done right... this will be one hell of a spectacular movie!
JMH
