Aphelion

I read the first 100 pages sitting under a tree at the old cemetery Kerameikos, and the second 100 pages looking over the bay of Piraeus).

<br>Oooo. What a great-sounding setting for a story. The average cemetery invokes emotion in readers to begin with, but a historic one is even better. And just sitting there under a tree, reading a book in a place of death and rest... <br><br>Sounds like there's a story there, just waiting to be written. I wish I could have seen what you saw.<br><br>Nate

I, on the other hand, must be so old that I don't even REMEMBER Madam Hooch.<br><br>(Finally broke down and bought the book -- list price $41 Canuck bucks, less 30% discount. So far, so good ...)<br><br>Robert M.

"I'm tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only-skin deep. That's deep enough. What do you want, an adorable pancreas?"<br><br>- Joan Kerr<br><br>You can only perceive real beauty in a person as they get older.<br><br>- Anouk Aimee<br>

I can't watch Maggie Smith in Harry Potter without thinking of her brilliant, cutting performance in THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064840/).<br><br>That film had a profound effect on me when it was shown on UK TV in the mid-70s. I was 12 or 13 at the time, and I remember being allowed to stay up late to watch it, probably because it was on on a Saturday night. I don't think my mum and dad had a clue what it was about beforehand (probably wouldn't have let me watch it if they had!). But in stark terms, if you'll forgive the pun, the movie taught me that, hey, these 'girls' are sort of ... *different* from us lads!

Pratchett has a dig at Rowling:<br><br>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainmen ... 732385.stm

Finished reading this one about five minutes ago. (I had to wait for my son to finish reading it.)<br><br>I may have a different opinion after I've slept on it, but for the moment, if I had to sum it up in one word, that word would probably be: unsatisfying.<br><br>Now, no second-to-last book in a series is meant to be. It's supposed to get you to want to buy the last one. But sometimes when I read it, that seemed to be the book's only goal. It was as if the idea of telling a really good yarn was supplanted by a need to pad things out, age the characters emotionally so they can do whatever adult deeds await them & set the stage for the real story, the last one. <br><br>Don't get me wrong, parts are damned brilliant, but they seemed to be alongside bits decidedly less than so. Which I can't say or it will spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it yet.<br><br>Did anyone else think along similar lines? <br><br>Nate

I think Rowling handled the large amount of information she handed out very well.  It didn't feel like the ramp before the jump to me, but rather a more informative, more mature novel.  And it kept me interested and turning pages the whole way through.  But then maybe I'm just easy to please.
-- david j.

<br>While I realize that I'm increasingly difficult to please, I took all that information to be more like a recap of previous events, a "remind everyone of what's happened and who all the characters were" before the final battle.<br><br>I had no trouble turning pages. Rowling has skill, there's no denying that. I just thought the plot would be more complicated, more "driven", like in the previous ones.<br><br>Nate