The Great British Summer – warning plot spoiler July 22, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Reviews , trackbackToday the Observer informs us that the new volume of Harry Potter is as much a part of Summer as Ascot or Wimbledon. Its far better suited to the Great British Summer, I think, because it cannot be rained out. Yesterday, having slept through the midnight queues I got my copy of the Boy Wizard’s latest adventures from Waterstones at 11.30, and went to sit in Gordon Square in the hope that the weather might stay sunny. A vain hope indeed, and soon I was curled up at home with cat, chocolate and a good rainy afternoon read.
Harry Potter books are that rare thing, a book which improves on being turned into a film, and I suspect this latest will be no exception. There’s even an epic battle scene at the end, which will give the special effects people lots of fun. A sense of finality pervades throughout, as loose ends are wrapped up and Harry’s destiny looms nearer. Things are not as we may have imagined, though having just seen the Order of the Phoenix last weekend, revelations about Snapes are no real surprise.
The main child characters – Harry, Hermione and Ron – are growing up in a wooden sort of way, and Neville comes into his own. I’m not sure why there was all the fuss about characters dying, as all of the main three make it through. I may not forgive JK Rowling for Hedwig though. Unnecessary and likely to traumatise small children and rather larger adults.
It wanders rather aimlessly in the middle, as the three set off on their quest to find the Horcruxes, containers of the fragmented soul of you-know-who, or perhaps the Deathly Hallows, and I’d put money that the filmmakers will condense that and leave out Ron’s departure and return. She even manages to get in a dragon on a lair of gold, surrounded by goblins, which was somehow very reminiscent of Smaug and the Hobbit, though in this case the dragon proves to be the means of escape for our intrepid trio in a scene which must have been written with the cinematography in mind.
Unlike Pullman, or C S Lewis, I doubt I’ll re-read this, so off to Amnesty it goes. Good for a wet afternoon, but not a classic. I look forward to the film.
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