Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince — J.K. Rowling
Scholastic
2005
Rating:


The penultimate work in any planned, epic series is a tricky thing. The work must strive to postpone the inevitable events that will come in the conclusion, but it must also set the pieces in motion for the final battle. Making matters more difficult, the work must also conform to some degree to the tropes set forth in the previous material to please fans while simultaneously pushing things forward for the sake of creative progress.

Joss Whedon’s sixth season of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer� and the seventh installment of Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman� comic book series “Brief Lives� (“World’s End� technically comes between book seven and the climactic “Kindly Ones,� but “World’s End� was an interlude that rarely involved the protagonist, Morpheus), two series that are the peers of J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter,� face a similar quandary and end with results similar to “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.� All of them feel uncharacteristically dark when compared to the other episodes. All of them feel like they’re dawdling, placing their protagonists on relatively unimportant errands that initially seem to lack a purpose. Yet all of the apparent tedium ultimately turns out to be essential cogs in a machine of forceful, centripetal motion, leading to the death of a beloved character and repercussions so great they will be felt in the final installment.

Like “Buffy� and “Sandman,� “Harry Potter� has become an essential piece of the modern pop landscape. Rowling, along with Gaiman and Whedon, has proven that a “low form� like children’s fantasy can be just as richly textured and emotionally startling as any supposedly “highbrow� work of literature.

“Half-Blood Prince� isn’t quite Rowling’s masterpiece (that distinction arguably goes to “Prisoner of Azkaban� or “Goblet of Fire�) and it isn’t likely to win over any critics who abhor the sight of “Harry Potter� on the New York Times bestsellers list. Rowling is too set in her formula for that, especially in her insistence on delaying the plot by keeping Harry from the wizarding school of Hogwarts (and the action) for the summer.

Though Rowling does start somewhere different than the usual Privet Lane. After a meeting between England’s Prime Minister and the Minister of Magic, Rowling takes the reader to an eerie meeting between Hogwarts Professor Snape and Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange, who were involved in the murder of Harry’s godfather Sirius Black. At the meeting, Snape makes an Unbreakable Vow to help Harry’s teenage nemesis Draco Malfoy complete the task Voldemort has appointed for him. This sets the stage for the darkest of Rowling’s books and for a persistent atmosphere of tension.

Harry determines on his own that Malfoy and Snape are conspiring in some evil deed, but his warnings are ignored by Headmaster Professor Albus Dumbledore, who maintains that Snape is an ally. The headmaster believes that Harry’s energies would be better spent determining Voldemort’s end game by visiting stored memories through his magical cauldron, the Pensieve. As Harry sighs at one point, these memories provide an interesting backstory to the boy who would be Voldemort, but they don’t seem to be going anywhere, no matter how much Dumbledore insists on their importance. In one of Rowling’s virtuosic strokes, the memories eventually form an essential, fully formed puzzle about Voldemort that puts in motion Harry’s quest for the last book.

Besides the visits into Dumbledore’s magical Pensieve, there’s a dearth of magic this time around. Harry even misses the big Quidditch match. Rowling, instead, places the emphasis on the far more nefarious subject of being a teenager in love. The inevitable match-up between Ron and Herminone is deferred by the petty trivialities that often delay young lovers â€" Ron discovers that Hermione kissed another boy and dates someone to make her jealous, forcing Hermione to date Ron’s Quidditch rival in return. Meanwhile Harry’s growing feelings for Ron’s sister Ginny feel to him like “something large and scaly erupted into life in his stomach, clawing at his insides.â€? All of adds extra gravity to Harry’s impending battle with Voldemort. More than ever, Harry has something to lose.

Harry does, indeed, suffer a great loss at the end of the “Half-Blood Prince.� It’s a death that, even more so that that of Sirius Black, takes the wind out of the reader. The murder gives even greater conviction to Harry’s cause, a cause that Harry may now be willing to die for. Rowling is barreling down the tracks now, and like the climactic installments of “Buffy� and “Sandman,� there’s no slowing down. The die has been cast and even greater tragedy may be in store for Harry. But there may also be grace and greatness. With Rowling at the helm, anything’s possible.

Posted Saturday, July 30, 2005

Link to this review:
http://filmzeus.pressbin.com/book/j.k.rowling/harry.potter.halfblood