29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
a must for long car journeys
We took this on holiday with us. We travelled from Aberdeen to Norfolk with hardly any complaints from either children or adults. Stephen fry kept us all rapt by his superb story telling. It is wonderful hearing the voices he has for all the different characters. We now have all four of these books on audio and they have been worth every penny.
A bit too long and Harry gets soppier in every book
The mind-numbingly complex plot is stunning. No matter how shrewd you may think you are, you will NOT work out who all the evil people are the first time you read this. I was up reading until about five in the morning, desperate to work out who the baddie was before I finished it, but it's impossible. Everything has been improved upon in this book. Hermione is cooler, Ron...
We took this on holiday with us. We travelled from Aberdeen to Norfolk with hardly any complaints from either children or adults. Stephen fry kept us all rapt by his superb story telling. It is wonderful hearing the voices he has for all the different characters. We now have all four of these books on audio and they have been worth every penny.
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When I saw how long this book was compared to the previous three I was a bit doubtful. How could JK Rowling possibly fill all those pages with one school year at Hogwarts? But she did. We're thrown into Harry's life in the middle of the summer holidays when he goes to stay with the Weasleys to go to the Quidditch World Cup and then we're in for an extremely eventful year at Hogwarts.
It seemed to me (before reading the book) that this fourth one in the series is more "adult" than the previous ones. I based that opinion purely on the length of the book. Having read it I feel that this has been confirmed. Harry, Ron and Hermione are growing up. They're no longer kids, but proper teenagers, which might be why I enjoyed this book more than the previous ones. I don't think this will affect children's enjoyment of this book though as the main ingredients (learning magic, coping with school and schoolfriends, and the dark powers that seem to follow Harry wherever he goes) are still present.
I also enjoyed the fact that we're getting to know the other Weasleys better as they're gradually taking on more importance as Harry's substitute family. Getting closer acquainted with Dobby, the house-elf is thoroughly enjoyable since he adds a lot of the comedy value to this story.
I think it's important to read these books in the right order as there are a lot of references to Harry's past. If you have not enjoyed the first three as much as you thought you would I'd still stick with it as this book really does mark a bit of a change from children's book to book for all ages.
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Having been told many times of J K Rowling's fourth installment of the Harry Potter series being considerably darker than the first three, I was simultaneously skeptical as to whether or not the effect would be successful, and at the same time eager to experience the change in her storytelling technique. I wasn't disappointed. Yes, it's a long book, and although that seems to put some people off, let me assure you that the effect has the author drawing the reader in to an enchanting and many-layered plot like never before. The level of detail is far more enhanced than the previous books containing Harry's adventures: The author seems aware that the original Harry Potter fans have now matured along with the young wizard, and are now capable not only of understanding the changes Harry is experiencing, but also able to take on board a more complex storyline than is usual within the set of books.
The first hundred or so pages see Harry suffering at the hands of his wretched relatives - the Dursleys - before finally being released for long enough to enjoy the exciting atmosphere of the Quidditch World Cup. Upon returning to Hogwarts, Harry and his fellow witched and wizards learn of a once-annual tradition known as the Triwizard Tournament. It is at this point that J K Rowling unleashes information about magic schools in other countries: Durmstrang and Beaxbatons are the names of the other two schools that compete against Hogwarts for the Triwizard Cup. Times are stressful for Harry during the competition, and it is then that we glimpse changes in his personality and angry outbursts caused by his awkward adolescant phase.
There are, of course, plenty of new characters introduced to the reader: The new Defence Agsinst the Dark Arts teacher - the eccentric and - some believe - dangerous 'Mad-Eye' Moody. We also come across some familiar faces, such as the amusing house-elf Dobby, formerly seen in book two - The Chamber of Secrets. Not only this, but surprising facts are uncovered about characters such as Neville Longbottom, and sinister pasts of thoses working for the Ministry of Magic. There is plenty of excitement within the Goblet of Fire, and suspense during difficulties Harry must overcome during tests of friendship between himself, Ron and Hermione. There are lots of surprises in store, plenty of twists and several weepy moments. It is my personal favourite in the series, and I urge you to give it a read.
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"Wow." That was the one word I could get out after finishing and finally closing the covers of the massive and long-awaited "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." It was everything I've been eagerly waiting for and *more*, and not just because of its hefty 734-page length. I *won't* summarize the plot here in my review--there are just too many delights, shocks, and surprises that you should discover yourself. This is by far the most involved, detailed, and most of all *dark* Harry Potter novel--Harry's life becomes far more complicated, with friendship problems, romantic difficulties, and far more deadly threats to his life and happiness than ever before. But don't be put off: there's as much of the usual fun, silliness, and delight to J.K. Rowling's wonderful writing that definitely had me laughing out loud even in some of the darker moments. Rowling has planned the general structure of her entire seven-book saga beforehand, and it shows in the care and attention to details that pick up plotlines and characters from previous books (Tom Riddle, Dobby the House-Elf, Sirius Black) and take them in dramatic and exciting directions, as well as adding innovative twists and startling new characters ranging from the frightening to the humorous. As great as the first books were, Book Four is more mature, more involved, and more personal. She has, with this book, taken the Harry Potter saga halfway through its full seven-volume story, and I found myself thinking of another favorite saga: conceived as a single structure but broken into parts that captured the imaginations and hearts of kids and adults around the world: The "Star Wars" movies. And what is generally considered the best of all the Star Wars movies?--the *middle* one, "The Empire Strikes Back." On the 20th anniversary of that, my favorite Star Wars movie, I sat and read the new Harry Potter, halfway through Harry's saga, and was amazed at how much it reminded me of "Empire," not specifically in plot but rather in theme. At the end of both "Harry IV" and "Empire," the villain has shown himself to be more powerful than imagined, our heroes have suffered a serious blow, and dark, dark times are coming. We know they'll triumph...but half the fun is accompanying them on their adventures. We know how it all worked out for Luke Skywalker...and I can't wait to see how it will come out for Harry Potter. I'm already counting the days until Book Five, but in the meantime I think I'll read Books One through Four all over again. Harry Potter is not likely to look back on his fourth year at Hogwart's with much fondness...but I, and his millions of fans, *will*.
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In book form, the Goblet of Fire was a hard book to read, let alone finish - with such parts as the opening chapter and the quidditch world cup being a perfect remedy for insomnia. However, this cd edition is just amazing from start to finish. Stephen Fry is a perfect narrator, getting all the voices just right, and providing a very dramatic and epic approach to the story of the Triwizard Cup.... and one of the most exciting and dangerous years of Harry Potter's life.
I have listened to this in almost every spare moment and have relaxed and throughly enjoyed every moment.
The Harry Potter books have always been epic and exciting, but the audio cds take this one step ahead, and are great things to listen to any moment of the day. If you are a fan of Harry Potter or Stephen Fry (I am a fan of both)you should get this.
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The book for the fourth year for Harry at Hogwarts is very different to the movie because Sirius Black was way more involved and Harry, Ron and Hermione visit him and brings him food while he lives in a cave in the mountains looking over Hogsmeade instead of him eating rats all the time. The book is about the Triwizard Tournament which is set in Hogwarts between Beauxbatons, Hogwarts and Durmstrang. Cedric Diggory, Fleur Delacour, and Viktor Krum, Harry Potter are selected to compete in the Tournament and they have to get through 3 tasks, each one harder than the previous and Cedric and Harry draw first place from the first and second so they have to go into the labyrinth first. Victor and Fleur are both out in the third task so it is between Harry and Cedric. At the end, Harry is in a hospital bed with everyone around him including Padfoot (Sirius as a dog). I would rate this book
10/ 10 and I think this is the best Harry Potter book.
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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is definitely a pivotal point in the series. The first 3 books managed to get by on the novelty of Harry joining the wizarding world, coupled with the fact his life becomes under an ever increasing threat. This hasn't been exhausted, but isn't enough on its own to sustain a forth book or indeed the rest of the series. JK Rowling appears well aware of this and decided to really expand not only Harry as a character, but also the world he operates in. This really allows the reader to be drawn into the fact we are observers in a world that is no less complicated than our own, and the dynamics within it are not black and white.
Harry begins the 4th years in dramatic fashion, a visit from the Weasley family doesn't quite go to plan, much to the dismay of the Dursley's, but this does not stop Harry from attending the Quidditch World Cup. For the first time Harry grasps the size of the wizarding world he is apart of, realising there must be many other schools all over the world to accommodate all the wizards that clearly must exist. Harry's enlightenment is short lived however, resulting in his trip being cut short, this though is forced to the back of Harry's mind as the elder male Weasley's are being delicately evasive with Harry, Ron and Hermione...
Harry returns to Hogwarts buoyed by his time at the Weasley's and just like everyone else at Hogwarts is instantly fascinated by the prospect of a replaying of an old school tournament played between the 3 greatest European Schools. Each school can only have one champion and to ensure fair play, the Goblet of Fire is used to big the entrants. Does someone have it in for Harry though?
This book really begins to highlight the strengths Harry is developing, highlighting his bravery and loyalty, whilst also showing that at times he is fallible, and when all said and done he is just a 14 year old boy...
The writing in this book is superb, the pace is spot on and although the book is lengthy you will race through it as if it was half the length. I really cannot give this book enough superlatives, the writing of JK Rowling has clearly improved and isn't as simplistic as the earlier books, maybe its because it's the middle book that this transformation has happened, or maybe it's just coincidence but whatever the reason, I am so glad it happened as this book really makes the series so far.
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The great thing about Harry Potter is that the books appeal to everybody. Both children and adults love them!
I have to say that I think this one is the best so far. Like the other three it's immaginative, exciting and hillariosly funny! There's also the usual strange and exciting twist at the end when the baddie's identity is revealed. This book brings in some new characters, who are just as well written as all the old ones.
The story picks up exactly where it left off; Peeves is still up to his usual tricks, Professor Trelawny is still as batty as ever, Fred and George are still mischevious, and we find out exactly what Pettigrew did after he escaped.
This book starts to open up a wider wizarding world to the reader. Just when we think we know everything there is to know about the wizarding world we discover many new secret facts about characters. This book starts to bring in politics a bit more as we discover other wizarding schools and start to learn a bit more about Voldemort and other dark wizards and exactly why things happened the way they did. We learn a lot more about the past and what it was like when the dark wizards were strong.
The story is very exciting. It's not what you would expect. Sometimes the suspense will make you grip the book very hard indeed, and sometimes you' ll be driven mad trying to figure out what on Earth's going on.
The story finishes very dramatically and leaves you hungry for more.
Congratulations, J.K. Rowling; it's another winner!
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This fourth volume makes you hope there will be many more. By far, so far, the best, and the thickest. The book is packed with events and a tremendous level of creativity and imagination. At the same time the references to the previous volumes are still numerous, giving to this new episode a perfect continuity in the story.
The first element that jumps out is the fact that Harry Potter has been growing in age from one volume to the next, and in this volume he really has his age, thirteen. This is the mark of a very good writer who is able to follow the maturity or the maturation of the characters, so that the story is realistic. Never in the four volumes, and particularly in this volume, are the characters older than they should be. Hermione discovers social consciousness and gets interested in the fate of elves, as well as she discovers the difference between friendship and love. Ron Weasley discovers the need to believe his friends and the first pangs of love or sexual awareness. Harry Potter opens his eyes to the necessity to assume his responsibilities by learning what he needs to accomplish his tasks and the sense of honor and human solidarity even within a competition in which he tries, and he is not the only one, to remain human, with his challengers or co-competitors, instead of being an unsensitive and selfish winning machine. This is done with great subtlety and delicacy. Fred and George Weasley are older and they discover the need to have a social and economic position in society that brings in an income based on a creative project for the whole community : this is known as business in any society.
The second element is that the confrontation between Potter and Voldemort finally comes to a direct face-to-face one-on-one duel whose stake is life or death for Harry Potter as well as life or death for his direct friends and the whole community. The battle leaves the level of individuals to reach the level of society, a real universal value, a cosmological dimension. And in this progressively built up, and non-final because undecisive as for the life of death of Voldemort himself, frontal shock, the writer shows a level of imagination that has no limits. She uses older elements in an unforeseen or at least partially unpredictable way, and she adds new elements that are totally undeductable from the previous volumes. Suspense is absolute and never, at this level, loosened or weakened.
The third element is The widening of the national and ethnic scope of the book. The author introduces a competition that brings into the picture two schools from abroad : one from France and another one from eastern and central Europe. Hence there is a play on the particular « dialects » of those foreigners in their use of English, a play on food variations, on clothing variations, on transportation variations, etc. This is supposed to widen the scope of the students' consciousness and awareness of the differences that exist between and among humans to bring out a wider accepting of national and international cooperation. But she also widens the scope by introducing several other communities, particularly some that are traditionally rejected by wizards and witches on the basis or pure prejudice, that is to say racism : merpeople, elves, goblins (a little), giants (only a beginning). The aim is always to show that cooperation between different ethnic groups is necessary to give the future some stability and predictability.
The fourth element has to do with political power and its abuses. Power for the sake of power (Lord Voldemort), or for the sake of stability (The Minister of Magic, Fudge), or for the sake of lawfulness (that always covers some unlawful element and some inhuman attitudes to impose the law), or for the sake of personal privileges (like the power to show off, to get publicity, to bet and gamble) leads to abuse and cecity, at least shortsightedness, the incapability to see how the future will change and warp those principles or objectives, those ambitions, those values : to be a real leader you have to keep in mind the unification of your people and the wider longer aims of human life, of social life, of history. Lord Voldemort and his followers find themselves on the wrong side of history, just the same as the Minister of Magic who only wants to protect what has achieved, which is the past, and to prolong it into the future. This idea that the future needs moral commitment and the accepting of change is essential in this book. There is a real mirror in the book that gives us a picture of our own society that uses democracy in order to capture power in the name of change and progress, and then defend it in the name of stability. Any political leader is led to conservativeness, I am even inclined to saying conservation.
We thus wait for the next volume that will have to deal with the fight against the revived Lord Voldemort and also with some fundamental issues that have not yet been solved : love and its outcome, the fate of Harry's godfather, the need of justice and to avoid injustice or to repair cases of injustice, when injustice occors, etc. We can trust the writer to bring in new elements that will constantly feed the mill of suspense and imagination.
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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, is the 4th book in the ever-expanding Harry Potter series. By ever-expanding, I don't just mean that the series is getting longer. I'm talking about the books themselves. Compared to the previous three books, this one is huge. Weighing in at 734 pages, it's almost triple the size of The Prisoner of Azkaban. Does the increased length hurt the book at all? Not a bit. In fact, this is probably the best book in the series.
It starts out as the same thoroughly charming narrative about Harry, his friends, and the lurking presence of Voldemort in his life. There are some chilling events at the beginning of the book which show just how evil Voldemort and his minions really are. However, these events are nothing compared to the ending. This book takes the series in a darker direction, with an ending that will make you shiver. The best part about it is that it's a surprise. The entire book leads up to it, but you don't realize how until you actually get there. Instead, you keep wondering just what Voldemort's plan is and why Harry is so important to it. Because of that, for about 650 pages you are given an extra layer to the story. There's the always enjoyable interaction between the characters and the adventures that they have, and the budding mystery behind it all. This is a book I wasn't able to put down very easily.
The characters are much the same, though they do have a certain amount of growth that is common in moving from thirteen years old to fourteen. Harry's starting to think even more about girls, especially Cho Chang. He's still awkward around them, though, and acts like a typical teenager. Ron hasn't changed a whole lot, but I don't think he ever will. Some kids are like that, too. Hermione has probably changed the most, as she has become an activist. Events at the beginning of the novel inspire her to have a cause and create an organization to further that cause. It's too bad that Rowling couldn't make this aspect of her character more interesting, though. Whenever Hermione brought up the subject, the book took a major downturn and I became bored very quickly. Thankfully, though, these sequences are short so the book doesn't lose too much momentum. Unfortunately, this is going to be an ongoing plot line, so I hope Rowling can make it more interesting in the future. The interaction between the three characters is what makes the book so good, though. They bicker, they make up, they stand up for each other to the end. They are the perfect group of friends and they make the book a joy to read.
The minor characters are done just as well. Dumbledore, the head of the school, is still the mysterious but always helpful old man that he's been throughout the series. He's never rattled, never quick to anger, and always willing to help Harry when he needs it the most. The other regular teachers are just as good, with the exception of Trelawney who is yet again terribly boring and one-note, always predicting that Harry will suffer some horrible fate. However, it's the new characters that shine in this one. Mad-Eye Moody, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, is vividly portrayed. He's paranoid, always looking over his shoulder with his magic eye that can see through things, but he's enormously helpful to Harry when the chips are down. He harbours a secret though, and throughout the book you think you know what it is. But you don't, really. He's incredibly interesting and his characterization is wonderful. The other new character is Rita Skeeter, a slimy reporter for The Daily Prophet newspaper. She keeps writing stories about Harry that are completely untrue, making up quotes that make him look pompous and/or stupid. Harry is always embarrassed by these stories and his reputation around school takes a turn for the worse and everybody thinks he's a glory-hog. While I found Rita's character suitably smarmy, unfortunately the end of her story didn't do as much for me. It almost felt tacked on, like Rowling almost forgot to end it and then had to backtrack to put in clues to it.
The plot of the book, with its mysterious tournament between the three schools and Harry's involvement in it, is thrilling. You really feel for Harry as he is constantly tormented by his classmates who think that he entered just out of a desire for attention. The events themselves are suitably exciting, showcasing Harry's charity and his quick-thinking. Ron finally cracks under the pressure of always being in Harry's shadow, and they actually have a truly believable fight. As I said above, I didn't like Hermione's subplot very much, but she did a wonderful job in a supporting role for the other plots. The atmosphere gets darker and darker, and then there is the ending. All of a sudden, it's midnight, getting ready for a very dark book 5. For the first time, you get the sense that this is one long story told over a number of books, rather than a series of adventures about Harry and his friends. The book leaves you hanging, and I really felt sorry for the people who had to wait three years for it, instead of just moving on to the next book like I was able to do.
This is a wonderful addition to the series, and it keeps getting better and better. Bring on book 5!
David Roy
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