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Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Afterword by Daniel Hemmens
Dan Hemmens concludes his series of articles and his Ferretbrain coup.
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I think you're being a little harsh on the Chekov's Gun (aka Puzzlebox) style of book. I'm not say it's great literature and I'm not actually sure who is claiming its great literature but one of the few things that DH Appreciators can actually sell me on is how fun it is to see the books fitting together. David, for example, loves that sort of thing. And apparently if you read back it's very rewarding. I'm just saying.
I'm totally fine with the Puzzlebox style. I just find it annoying that people confuse it with literary merit (which I think they do).
I read all your DH reviews and I couldn't stop laughing. I agree with every single word. As much I used to love HP, I completely hate DH. I honestly think you're a 100 times better writer than JKR.
That's very kind of you.
Hehe, that's not saying much - a large portion of her fan community are better writers than JK ;)
My jumping off point was definitely the 5th book ... retrospectively I'm a bit peeved with the 4th but I remember just being hungry for more Potter at the time and not minding the length much beyond thinking "well, this is a wee bit indulgent."
I think the reason I tend to hold the 4th book in higher esteem than, say, the 5th is that a) something actually happens in it, and it is actually - while flabby - much leaner than book 5, and b) when blokey dies at the end it's genuinely striking and powerful, because none of the good guys have ever actually died in a HP book so far, so you had a sense that a line had been crossed.
The problem is, with the exception of Dumbledore, Voldemort and (arguably) Sirius and Hedwig, every death after that has been of a less important character, rather than a more important character.