Late last night I finished reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I started reading the book on Saturday after Nicola went down in the morning and queued to get it – thanks sweetie.
I’ve hardly been able to put the book down in my spare moments which is quite a compliment for J.K. Rowling since as a general rule I don’t read too much fiction prefering instead the sharp plot lines of technical books and blogs.
Since I am sure most people haven’t read the book yet I won’t go and reveal the major plot points but I did want to talk to the general theme.
Some critics have said that the book is really a filler and wasn’t edited heavily enough, I guess this is an understandable criticism since the book clocks in at over 550 pages. My opinion however is that the book is really about establishing context for future volumes and while you could trim a few bits out – overall its does a really good job of setting the backdrop for future adventures of Harry Potter and his friends.
The history of Lord Voldemort is definately a major theme and at certain points I genuinely felt sorry for the character and was almost angry at J.K. Rowling for making the character I loved to hate more likable – or at least, understandable.
Overall I give the book an eight out of ten for continued excellence in characfter development and extreme readability. To get a ten out of ten the book would have needed to spend more time focusing on Draco Malfoy’s activities – sometimes you just want to know what that boy is up to . . .