Credo Buffa wrote:Despondence wrote:Well, right now I'm reading HP & the Goblet of Fire, and I'm not quite sure what to say...

I have no words. . .

Oh, how come? You had quite a few before...
Seriously though, I'm halfway through book five now, and this one looks like it could be the first one that I would call
really good. The first four were sort of hovering between "good" and "ok-ish", imo. I don't at all agree that no. 2 would be the weakest one, I think I quite liked no. 2 - mainly thanks to Lockhart. That guy sort of reminded me of Rincewind heh heh. So far, I thought the Goblet of Fire was the worst one by a margin. The story was still pretty good, but there was way too much filler stuff which did nothing to advance the plot or add anything to the characters. Sort of explains why book 4 was as thick as the first three together. It also felt much too predictible in many instances. If it's any guide, I'm usually very poor at picking up clues and playing the detective while reading, but in this book I predicted correctly lots of stuff ~20 or 50 pages in advance, which sort of takes the excitement out of it. Its one saving grace though, was of course the volatile ending, and the colclusion to the plot threads, which I had
not predicted correctly at all, thank goodness
One other thing, a realization that hit me during book 4, and which at first annoyed me but now makes a lot of sense, is that Potter is an absolute twit. I mean, what a moron. Given what he's facing, shouldn't he be studying books and spells like hell, like Hermione, rahter than flunking it with Ron? Halfway through book 5, the thought hasn't yet occurred to him. And his social skills.....christ on a crutch. At one point in book 4 I started counting how many of his sentences started with "Er...." followed by a monosyllabic reply, usually "yeah" (wait, does that count as monosyllabic?). It really felt like he'd been dumbed down a couple of levels following book 3, developing an attitude and I don't know what. I so thoroughly enjoyed it at the end of book 4, when "Moody" explained to Potter how he'd had to take the little runt's pride and stupidity into account, in order to make the plan work..
I had to think about it for quite a long time, but gradually I realized, yeah, I was probably that daft and awkward too when I was fourteen. And I guess growing up among people like the Dursleys doesn't help the situation. So, for what it's worth Potter, you have my sympathies. Now grow up already.
"Ah. Yes, well that sometimes happens. Point is, it's no longer broken."