written by squonk on 28/11/2005
Good Points
Huge surprise at the end; sets up the finale
Bad Points
Dull 500 pages in the middle. Anti-climactic. Just a filler for the last book.
General Comments
I was disappointed with the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince book. If you read the others, you of course have to read it, but all it does is set up the last book. As a book in its own right, I felt like I was reading 600 plus pages of ho-hum narrative just so I could finally get to the end. The end has a huge surprise. The first few chapters are good, and the last two chapters are very good. The huge middle section (500 pages) were dull. J K Rowling is a superb writer, and I am expecting book 7 to blow us all away. So far, Goblet of Fire is the best, followed by Phoenix, then Prisoner of Azkaban.