Wednesday, July 19, 2000
Wednesday, July 19, 2000 |
| New
Harry Potter is biggest and best of the series By MICHAEL BOYLAN “Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire,” the fourth installment of J. K. Rowling's anthology about a young British wizard, was recently released to a worldwide frenzy of readers. “Goblet of Fire” weighs in at nearly twice the size of the other three books in the series, but is it as good as the others and is it any good at all? Is bigger actually better? You better believe it. If you haven't picked up a Harry Potter book yet, don't start with this one, but do work your way up. If you have read the other three books, this book is everything you have come to expect from the series. There is the same wonderful whimsy and magic filling each page, with the World Cup of Quidditch and a year long TriWizard competition that tests the limits of Harry's power. There is also, as always, a great whodunit mystery at its core that is sure to keep readers guessing until the very end. The book starts with Harry heading into his fourth year at Hogwart's School for Witches and Wizards. He and his friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, are 14 years old and becoming more sure of their powers, while becoming more unsure of everything else. Rowling has done a wonderful job in aging the content along with the characters, while still keeping it enjoyable and suitable for nearly all ages. I say nearly because “Goblet of Fire” is also the scariest of the four books, which says a lot if you have read “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.” The first chapter of the book is quite intense and readers start to follow a growing crisis in both the magical and Muggle (human) world. All of Potter's rivals and enemies are out in full force, including He Who Must Not Be Named. While some parts of “Goblet of Fire” will keep you on your toes, it is certainly not a horror novel and definitely not a departure from the tone of the series. One major plus of the new novel is the growing social conscience of the characters. The new novel sparks debate about equality, misrepresentation by the media, jealousy and bureaucracy. More than anything, though, the book is just fun. Since there are close to 400 extra pages, “Goblet of Fire” is almost double the usual amount of fun. There is, however, one small problem. The ending is the mother of all cliff-hangers and we don't know when the next book is expected to be released.
|
