CingularDuality

Ednos, start your own thread if you want to bash something you know so little about...

My wife has about twenty pages left until I get my hands on the book! I don't know if I'll have the book finished before I go see the movie at the IMAX theater tomorrow afternoon...

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Uchiha Obito

I finished it yesterday, I was very pleased with how everything was sewn up so nicely. Very satisfied with the ending and the explanations for everything.

Btw, Ednos, please don't troll, not on TG's website, you sit up on your high horse and try to flame, but you're debasing the very soul of this website with your immaturity. You think the writing is purile, we get it, you read your books, and we will read ours, you deprive only yourself of a wonderful experience.

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xTYBALTx

I doubt that Deathly Hallows' ending will be anywhere near the quality of a typical Sealab 2021 conclusion.

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Zephyr

Hmm...well no, Hogwarts doesn't explode if that's what you'd consider a quality conclusion.

-Zephyr

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Uchiha Obito

Although, that does seem to tie up any loose ends or questions that pop up. Maybe she will blow up Hogwarts eventually.

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Zephyr

I've always wanted a conflict in which muggles and wizards fought alongside each other against each other, and I think this already happened. I got very suspicious about the mirroring personalities/aspirations of Gellert Grindelwald and Adolf Hitler. Not to mention the fact that their duel in question occurred in 1945...curious isn't it? There was so much parallel to Nazi racial theory in Voldemort's actions...

[insanity] I wonder if Voldemort killed John Lennon? He was active right around the time of his death. [/insanity]

-Zephyr

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You were once like the newbie who needed a hand from above and TacticalGamer gave you it.

You owe the newbie who comes after you that same outstretched hand from above on your honor as a Tactical Gamer.

Tactics at TG come from trust and friendship, not meticulous detail and rigid discipline.

Everyone should be assumed mature until proven otherwise.

We are no clan.
We are not a single game.
We are mature, intelligent, and cooperative individuals.
We are TacticalGamer, a community above and beyond its name.

Uchiha Obito

The first point is actually very very interesting, I hadn't made that parallel, you could be on to something. Despite the fact that Grindelwald was blonde. Something else too Dumbledore waited five years before doing something about it, could Dumbledore be America?? ^^

I do like your train of thought though, very interesting

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Tarenth

I guess that makes Harry a third world country since 'America' never really gives aid, but offers lots of advice and pokes the people around him into doing things. ^_^

Of course in all honesty I think you're thinking far too much into it with the parallels.

Finally done with a fan copy and the original and I must say it was a good read. She really slams the door at the end of the book and puts up the sign "The End, there will be no more". This isn't a children's book and it makes more sense if you read it after finishing the other 6 books (yes, even slogging through the first 3). You get a real feeling of "This is war and war is hell. We're not fighting in a fantasy land where the good guys win just because they're good, we're fighting a gritty battle where you can end up dead for being in the wrong place at the wrong time".

Now if you weren't aware JKR actually takes an interesting approach to writing her books. There is, or was, fan groups in direct correspondance with her that recieved plot points ahead of time that I knew of from book 5 to book 7. The reason was they were writing versions of the books along with JKR with what they would want to see and how they want things to play out. These books (some giving up early at 200-300 pages and others actually finishing at 600-800 pages) are completed before her actual versions and what she does is read those versions and turns around what her biggest fans want into her writtings with her own twists. Some of the biggest spoilers, of course, are kept all hushed up, but a lot of the other plot points were all up for grabs.

If you can find and get a copy of those fan made versions they may be a good read and you can see what information JKR leaked and what she kept to herself.

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Quarath

The simple fact remains that this thread is for discussing a book which you have not read and obviously don't care to. So your little two word negative comments that you don't like the book mean nothing and just waste space in this thread. If you want to read the book and then come back and discuss it feel free. Otherwise WE GET IT ALL READY!

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Quarath

So as I love audio books, and by the way if you have not tried this Jim Dale is amazing in his narration of this entire series, We bought both print and audio at the midnight release. I had 4 of 17 disks ripped to MP3 before we got home from the store. My wife started reading and had finished it by 10 am. She is a speed reader. In the meantime I started listening while I finished ripping and by about 4 am had all 17 disks ripped and loaded on my 3 sons Ipod, Sansa, and PSP so they could begin listening when they woke up. needless to say it takes me much longer to finish whether I am reading or listening but I enjoyed it immensely. I think she did a wonderful job tying it all up and I love how the pieces all seem to fall into place not just from this but from every other book. This so much makes this not 7 books but one great story.

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"they're more like guidelines, than actual rules,"....Captain Barbossa - Pirates of the Caribbean

Requital

A few hints might be *SPOILERS* for some...

I would agree with Ednos on the reading level of the books. They are not exceptionaly written gramatically. Other than that...

This series was excellent. The books got better as Rowling's writting improves and the characters gain more maturity. I must admit though I was a little disapointed with Harry's performance through out the books. Perhaps it was his courage that kept him from killing, but it seems to me that any sane person would not have left Death Eaters alive after disarming them or knocking them unconscious. That was my biggest annoyance with the character.

Overall the last book of the series was absolutely fantastic. It tied up almost ever loose end and resolved them to such a complete degree that the ending was exactly right. It was interesting with the focus on magic and thus to some degree Wican mysticism that Rowling added a very Christian like ending with a death and ressurection to the motif that was set up since the first book. I was certain that Harry was what he was before the last book. His special resistance to Voldemorts magic gave me that impression. I felt that she came full circle with her storyline and should be applauded for not dropping the ball and not trying to extend the series past it's very direct approach. The characters were marvolously designed and true to themselves throught the series and demonstrated growth during the whole process.

I too picked up on the Nazi type regime with Voldemort and his Death Eaters. I found it to be a fantastic analogy of the hatred and racism used during WWII as wrong in a new light.

I wept a touch from satisfaction and sadness for the ending of such a well thought out series. I won't get to visit those characters again in new adventures, which is the saddest part.

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Iliana

Admittedly I've only read the first book of the series but after taking my sister-in-law to get the book at midnight and seeing how she didn't put it down until she was done I may have to borrow them from her. My first motivation to even buy book 1 was because my children LOVE the movies and thought this would be a good way for us to enjoy their storytime.

I see nothing wrong with how the story is written out, remember this series was written for children and now made to appeal to an adults tastes. Also I for one, am in no possition to critique her style seeing as how she gets paid for her writting so obviously she must be doing something right.

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Zoraster

i got to use the neg rep function for the first time ever!

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Silas Ender

I've been reading the books since I was really rather young. Hell, I've grown up with them. As an extremely prolific reader, I can honestly say that I have NEVER seen a series such as this..."work" like this one did. As Zephyr said, the others seemed to be tools to work towards the plot and conclusion of the 7th book. I personally prefer the later books in the series, as they do indeed have a darker and more "mature" theme, but we can appreciate that his follows the age of the protagonists, and views the world through lenses appropriate to the age of the protagonist and his comrades.

Requital touches on my own main gripe with Harry, and indeed his friends. Their unwillingness to kill seems absolutely bizarre in the situations they are sometimes end up in.

Honestly, "Deathly Hallows" ranks up near the top of my list of best fiction I have ever read, along with "Ender's Game" and "Team Yankee", and that's really saying something. One of my favorite things about the main character is that he always stays true to his morals, to his beliefs. Such a lack of corruption in a hero is an imminently desirable thing in a hero for me.

Again, Requital touches on my own feelings of the ending. A masterful conclusion, dampened by my own saddness that this is, most likely, the last I will read of these characters, perhaps even the world J.K.R. created.

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ScratchMonkey

A monster of a book:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/plush/9359/

(I was shopping for a birthday present and noticed this. ThinkGeek is one of my favorite places to shop. And hey, they've even got the right initials!)

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