potterpotterpotter

Arkle. Today has dawned on me in something of a sleep-deprived haze (again), this time as a result of spending a sizeable chunk of last night discussing Harry Potter with a seething horde of 8-to-15-year-olds. MTN Science Centre, Harry Potter Sleepover, me leading debate. Nice kids, actually - bright, articulate, scarily sussed on the books, and very amenable to being gently led down paths of Harry-Potter-Is-Simplistic-But-Fun, Harry-Potter-Is-Racist-But-Amusing and Harry-Potter-Is-Sexist-But-Entertaining. *Indoctrinatory heh*. Despite being, in my estimation, an above-average collection of teens in terms of literacy and intelligence, they generally confessed quite happily to favouring HP because it's easy to read, unlike Tolkien, who is "too much with the descriptions." Tchah. I diagnose too much television.

Anyway, crawled home at 12.30 last night, exhausted beyond belief by teen enthusing, and lacking the necessary gumption to go and collect my 1am copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince which, as geekery dictates, I had pre-ordered several months ago. However, I braved the wilds of Claremont this morning and have spent the rest of the day esconced on the sofa with the weighty tome, eating chocolate, giggling at intervals, and shifting uneasily owing to the Old Finnish Ice-Sitting Injury.

I shall endeavour not to be spoilery, because there are some real revelations in this one. But, overall:

• I am agreeably surprised. This seems to me a far more together and accomplished book than Order of the Phoenix, which suffered horribly from narrative straggle. The story has a much tighter shape, there are fewer digressions and over-elaborations, and the whole has a very nice sense of build-up and climax. The whisper flies round the clubs: is J K Rowling learning to write?
• Psychologically, it's much more realistic; I only experienced the desire to beat Harry's head against the wall for hopeless imbecility once or twice. The Harry/Dumbledore relationship is central, and it's more convincing than I've ever seen it, despite recurring fluffydumbledorism unbecoming in an ancient and powerful wizard. Harry may also be exhibiting some actual human responses. Perhaps, the curious stasis of the last 5 years notwithstanding, he is actually growing up.
• There are some very nicely-observed and often giggle-worthy adolescent romance situations, causing me untold smugness because the pairings I have always predicted end up happening. Heh. Warning, though: Harry develops a Spiderman complex. So done.
• Again on the smug front, I spotted the Half-Blood Prince about three paragraphs after it was introduced, and it's one of the possibilities I thought most likely, which doesn't say much, actually, except that Rowling sprinkles Clues, TM, around with enough force to be fairly easily predictable.
• An unfortunate side-effect of reading wa-aaaay too much HP fanfic is that the arrival of a new canon text feels somewhat familiar and ho-hum - this novel gave me the eerily deja-vu feeling of reading a competent fic with more psychological depth than the canon. Fun to watch favourite HP fic cliches turning up, though - notably, some of the shipping (Fleur/Bill, anyone?), more time with Narcissa, a stab at moving Malfoy closer to centre stage, and a generous dose of death and betrayal. HP fic writers are getting remarkably good at second-guessing Rowling. Not that it's difficult.

Also saw some clips of the Goblet of Fire movie last night. Looks pretty cool. Dragons, and mermen, and Quidditch, oh my. And, lawks, but those kids are growing up...