Tales of the Golem; or, the Modern Epimetheus

The Half-Blood Prince

I've read all of the Harry Potter books, if only to stay au courant, but I've always been lukewarm on them. They're okay, but I can't see why they're more deserving of world-wide mania than the next book.

But, I did think that the latest installment was well-done and perhaps the best in the series. It surprised me a couple of times. I did figure out who the Half-Blood Prince was, slightly before it became completely obvious.

I notice that previous generations of students at Hogwarts seem to have left the school littered with magical artifacts such as books and maps that they made. No one in Harry's year seems to have been so inventive yet... As far as we know, The Compleat and Accurate Researches of Hermione Granger isn't ready to be padlocked and put on the Restricted Shelf next to the Necronomicon, and Ron shows no sign of inventing any Everlasting Gobstoppers such as Fred and George might have done. Well, there's still final year.

posted by Richard Mason @ Monday, July 18, 2005