Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Book Information
Author:
JK Rowling
Date:
2005
Genre:
Fantasy
Library Reference:
F ROW
August 6, 2009
by Martin Kerby - Head of Information Services
Reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, JK Rowling's sixth instalment of the Harry Potter story, is disturbingly similar to watching a competent support band prior to a Rolling Stones' concert. You endure it, you may even begrudgingly enjoy it, but you are really only killing time until the main act.
It is not as though the book possesses any unforgivable flaw. Rowling is far too talented a storyteller, far too much the consummate professional, far too dedicated to the characters that she created as a struggling single mother, to disappoint her veritable millions of loyal fans. It is just that all Harry Potter fans, this reviewer included, saw it as a mere stepping stone to the seventh, and final book. For it was the final book which brought to an end the adolescent journey of Rowling’s central protagonist in a final, climatic battle with the evil Lord Voldemort.
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince follows all the usual patterns of the previous five books. Mercifully absent however, is the teenage angst that so dominated Book Five. Professor Snape finally wins the coveted position of Defence against the Dark Arts teacher, apparently not dissuaded by the untimely ends of his predecessors. Lord Voldermort begins to act more openly, while Harry and his dedicated band of Ron Weasley, Hermione Grainger and the collection of usual suspects in the form of Albus Dumbledore, Remus Lupin, Hagrid et al, marshal the forces of good.
With the aid of the new potions teacher, Horace Slughorn, Dumbledore reveals Voldermort’s past in an attempt to combat his evil designs. It is Slughorn who lends Harry an old text book whose previous owner was the self styled half blood prince, a character whose motives, like so many of Rowling’s support cast, are intriguingly unclear. Dumbledore and Harry discover that Voldemort created six Horcruxes and divided his soul into seven pieces to become immortal as long as they exist. Two of Voldemort's Horcruxes have already been destroyed; Tom Riddle's diary by Harry and Marvolo Gaunt's ring by Dumbledore. The final, tragic end to this book is in the aftermath of the gallant pair’s attempt to destroy another of the pieces, this time Salazar Slytherin's locket.
There is much to like in this book, particularly Rowling’s persistent refusal to speak down to her readership. Indeed her vocabulary is impressively extensive, although I doubt whether it would be fully appreciated by the five year old Harry wannabe, resplendent in cap and glasses, who lined up behind me to purchase the book. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this book, and indeed the entire series, is the moral ambiguity of many of the characters. Rowling does not divide the world into good and bad, nor does she shrink from showing that good people can be hampered by jealousy, shortsightedness and even stupidity. Yet, some developments do not ring true. For how could she expect us to believe that the brilliant Hermione Grainger would be attracted to the buffoonish Ron Weasley? Or that parts of Voldemort’s early life are not widely known in the wizarding community that he has terrorized, even as a memory.
Overall, it is a must read, as the 6.9 million readers who bought the book in the US in the 24 hours following its release probably found. But remember, it is the warm up act, the entrée. The main course must follow.