Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Spoilers to previous book within.

All right, I don't think the Harry Potter series is a brilliant piece of work like some others have suggested but I have found the previous books to be light reads when I don't want to think.  I confess that I found the previous books enjoyable, not all in the same amount but overall, enjoyable so I was hoping for more of the same with the new book.

But to be honest, the latest installment leaves me a bit disappointed.  I felt that the author tried too hard to create the story of a conflicted sixteen year old and it made events in the book, overall, feel a bit construed.  And a bit rushed too at trying to set up the story for the finale.

With Sirius' death in the last book, you would think with Potter's self-loathing he would be more a bit more cautious and less rash to jump at conclusions but nope, before he even returns to school, he's always back to his old self, obsessed with Malfoy.  It's arguable that this is just part of the author's depiction of the teenage behaviour but I found it unconvincing.  I mean, I through the "Sirius wouldn't have died if I hadn't been so rash" rhetoric was pretty spelled out in the last book.

Did anyone else find it juxtaposing in the depictment of the magic and non-magic world?  People in the magic world seem to be smart, keen, clever, sophisticated, cunning but the world is like a 1700s England, only with a feeble Ministry of Magic.  The non-magic world is more technologically advance, closer to 2000 England but the people seem a lot more dim-witted, or very ordinary.  I didn't really notice this contrast until the opening chapter of this book.

Don't get me wrong, I still feel this book is a good light read but I think one is better served by having low expectations so one can be easier to be pleased.  The plot isn't terribly complicated and the hints really add up by the middle of the book.  Worth the torrent download?  Yes.  Worth hard money?  No.

Hopefully, more of Potter's loved ones will die in the next book and we get a Gundam moment where he screams in agony and then everyone feels his pain through telepathy.

Harry isn't a horcrux. As if Voldemort put it on him, then to try to kill him multiple times? A horcrux isn't somthing you do by accident, or willy nilly. He split his soul to make the others, becoming somthing.. different and evil. Like he's going to just waste one? BS on that theory.

But you're rigth about Snape and his circles of redemption. Every book they've always tried to blame Snape in some form, but he's always redemed himself by actions. I think Dumbledore knew all along about Snapes Unbreakable Vow and planned his fake death in advance, using some of the Draft of the Dead that was brewed earlyer in the year. Normally when people were hit with the AvraKedabra or whatever, there's a whooshing sound, and they fall down on the spot with eyes open. Dumbledore flew up in the air and had his eyes closed... not the same effect. So we'll all find out eventually when the next book is out won't we?

But harry isn't a horcrux.