I had been so looking forward to this book, not only because I'm a big kid but also because my children where addicted. However I found myself putting it down every few pages or so and washing up or feeding the cat, and my children were much the same.... (although I notice they never got the urge to wash up)! It was so totally unlike her previous books.
Obviously I'm an adult, however I tried to read Ms Rowlings books from a child’s perspective of wonder, simply because that it the market they are aimed at… and I fully accept that they are not ‘grown-up‘ books, however much we adults may enjoy them. However, I feel this book was aimed at directly at adults... with the darker sides of our natures et al, and didn't work for it.
My youngest daughter absolutely never reads books, much to my dismay, however she made the effort to read the first Harry Potter book and was addicted from there on in because it was so amusing. Unfortunately however, this book defeated her, she lost the will to read it and gave up. And that to me sums the book up. Ms Rowling appears to be aiming at adults now.... and yes a lot of adults read her books, but ultimately this is a children’s series of books and the adults should be able to accept that. If they want adult fantasy I would suggest Lord of the Rings, or if they find that too hard going try the Belgariad by David Eddings which is entertaining, fun and very accessible.
I accept that Ms Rowlings is now dealing with the darker side of the wizarding world and the return of the Dark Lord, but I hope she doesn't forget that it's at the darkest hour that some of the best humour is displayed. Ms Rowling is British, and if there is one thing we Brits are famous for (rightly or wrongly) it's our sense of the ridiculous in the face of adversity. So come on Ms R, please bring the humour back.
Sad to say, I wait for the sixth instalment with no sense of anticipation at all. I might even wait until it's on special offer at the local bookshop before I buy it!
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It's all a bit of a shame really. The books are just getting thicker and thicker with the days of simply crafted plot of the excellent first book a fading memory. Bloomsbury need to pluck up the courage (and earn their money) to give the next monster tome a healthy edit. I am sure The Order of the Pheonix is a decent book it's just I could not find it amongst all that paper.
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I was looking forward to this, but it needs EDITING! My personal theory is that the unbelievably successful J K Rowling is now feared by her editors, who don't want to 'interfere with the magic.' So the story suffers and there's not the the pace of the first 3 books. (I thought that book 4 needed a few judicious lines drawn through it too!)
In between the meandering, there are some lovely ideas and great imagination - but the writing lacks clarity, pace and purpose and I found it annoying.
To be fair, if I was JK Rowling, I think I would have stopped writing by now - but perhaps that's part of the problem.
You'll buy it anyway; you won't be able to resist! I hope you like it better than I did.
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I've always enjoyed reading the Harry Potter books, I'm no fanatic, and certainly wasn't in any rush to read this book, but nonetheless was curious as to what JK Rowling had in store for Harry in his fifth year at Hogwarts. Althought this still proved a good read, I have to admit the 'Incomparable' JK has failed to make this book as magical (excuse the pun!) as her previous novels. The book started very well, however it slowly declined from the first few chapters and the following 200 pages were very drawn out - some chapters were so unecessary they could have been condensed to a paragraph. When Harry finally reaches school, again, nothing much happens. I found Harry's character rather irritable and annoying at times, perhaps to do with his adolescence, although it struck me that Ron and Hermione did not seem to undergo much change from the last novel. Although the book proved gripping reading, I was somewhat unsatisfied that the powerful build up of the previous novel was not matched in this installment. Rowling seemed to force the reader to plough through over 500 pages before anything interesting happened, which left me feeling very disappointed. The Order Of The Phoenix, while still proving a good read, was in my opinion one of the worst Harry Potter books to date - very much in need of editing, and very lacking in the same quality as the previous novels. Perhaps it was the pressure of the fans and publishing company, but Rowling appears to be on 'auto-pilot' throughout this book. Disappointing.
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OK I'm a middle-aged man, so who am I to criticise the set of novels that has driven a whole generation to become bookworms. However, while I thoroughly enjoyed the first three, I did get a little frustrated with the length and lack of plot with the fourth, and afraid I just lost the point completely with this one. It will be a while before I attempt the sixth.
Yes, Harry and his friends are growing up, and teenage angst inevitable. But here they just appeared boring. Why couldn't they have been a little more anarchic? The length of the novel didn't help, but even with a much shorter storyline, I do think the lack of anything new would not have made much difference.
Sorry to buck the trend. I know there are a large number of people out there who disagree.
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I'm thoroughly dissatisfied with this huge book. I keep great memories of all previous books. I'm an adult and The Philosopher's stone was first book I was able to read in English. I'm Spanish and many more books came after this. But all my expectations were disappointed with this last book I have been waiting for so long. Half book is just soooo boring. Then the plot is so unconvincing, no new characters (only one?) Old characters don't take part in the plot, moreover it seems kids have not evolved at all. I think autor has lost the chance to introduce new situations. I missed phrases like "We can die or even worst, get expelled" or do you remember situations like when Harry saw Fenix bird first time? or description of Ron's owl choking with some owltreats. You won't find them in this grey and dull book.
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Sorry, but this Harry Potter does not keep a reader entertained as did the others in the series.Unfortunately the plot only thickens in the last few chapters and the rest are full of bickering teenagers.It is as if J.K Rowling has run out of ideas.I just hope that any more Harry Potter books return to the fast and flowing plots seen in the original three.
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I've read all of the Harry Potter series and must say that this one was quite a disappointment and the only one that made me feel like I'm reading a simple "children's book". In my opinion, the success of the Harry Potter books lies in the magical world that it creates not on the characters personalities. In the attempt to create more depth to the characters, the book lost this magical quality and became like any other teenage book with too many obvious and banal misunderstandings. I think this resulted in the book loosing some of its appeal to adults who would not be intrigued by a growing up teenage tale. The new focus on the characters' personalities replaced the continuous adventures and events that made the first 3 books such page turners. The characters have become more real (which was never a weakness in previous books) yet less likable, particularly Harry who turned out to be a psychologically disturbed, angry and capricious teenager and Dumbledore who lost his high status in our minds after being shown to act in an apparent unwise (human like) manner. The story drags on for the first part of the book without many real adventures resulting in too much build up in the plot with an ending that doesn't live up to this build up nor does it, like in the previous books, bring together all the elements introduced throughout the book. I hope the author bears such comments in mind while writing the coming book and manages to recapture the magical sense of adventure instead of focusing on the psychological aspect of the characters' personalities, which actually weakens the plot bearing in mind that the number of pages isn't what makes a book successful.
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As a great fan of Rowling's work, I eagerly set into the Order of the Phoenix. Only too soon, however, I realized that this book is not what it should have been. Clearly this was a rush job and the first draft went straight to print. It is packed with typos and gramatical errors, exact phrases and sentences repeated again and again, and terrible word choices. If an editor had taken the time to glance over this piece before rushing it off to print, it would have been a much tigher, better written tale. Also, long tracts of incidental information should have been cut out for the sake of keeping the story moving. The plot stalls so badly in places bogged down with needless descriptions that I found myself skimming forwards to where the story picked back up again. This book should have been about half the length it is. Lastly, Rowling really dropped the ball on characterization. Fifteen year olds get angry, but not at LITERALLY everything! They experience a full range of emotions, but not in this book. Any feeling other than Harry's full blown rage is mentioned only in passing, as if trivial. It's boring when a character's only reaction to any situation is to get angry over and over again! And does Harry Potter have a heart condition we should know about? Every few pages his heart starts to pound in his chest or beat furiously. There are a few entertaining parts in which I found myself laughing, but they are few and far between and don't make up for the sloppy, first-draft quality of the writing. I say, better luck next time Rowling. Perhaps she'll take some time to polish the sixth book so that it's as good as her first four.
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The hype, the publicity, the anticipation. Was it worth it?
Unfortunately, I don't think so.
Rummours that this book would be ready were out at least 6 months before it was, and you can't but wonder if JKR didn't rush to get it out. The text seems to drag from one part of the plot to another with few exciting and interesting moments.
Maybe JRK is evolving Harry's character, but I think turning him into an arrogant and obnoxious teenager isn't really provider the spellbound stories that have kept the success thus far. Maybe in the next book he'll drop out of Hogwarts and backpack around Europe to find himself?
On the plus side, I did keep reading till the end and where there is at least a slight redemption. Beginning’s good to. Just a pity about the middle 400 pages.
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