Telltale Games

Emily · 07/25/2007, 12:03 am

Okay, I just finished it. Anyone else?

Overall I thought it was a good read, and a good ending to the series. Wasn't crazy about the epilogue and I thought the book would have done better ending on the last chapter instead, but what can you do. The part when Harry thinks he has to sacrifice himself had me bawling, and that's always an indiciation of a good book in my warped mind.

Also I'm disappointed that Sirius was really dead. All this time I thought he'd make a comeback. I am, however, glad that the magic mirror from Book Five played into this one, because I always thought that was an obnoxious red herring.

taumel · 07/25/2007, 12:22 am

Hmm i never got interested in Harry Potter...

I already had my phase were i read lot's of Fantasy and Science Fiction books and when i tried a Potter book once it just wasn't the right thing for me as i've read much better books already.

Rasher · 07/25/2007, 12:37 am

It is a fantastic book. My friend got me hooked on the series when she gave me the first two books. I have yet to finish the last book though.

A fellow Sims 2 player and a Potter fan? How cool is that?

ETA: I'm still hoping that Snape is a good guy underneath it all *crosses fingers and toes*.

ShaggE · 07/25/2007, 01:19 am

Got it at the release party, and finished it the next day

Fantastic book!

Derwin · 07/25/2007, 10:50 am

I thought it was definitely the best in the series. The final battle was exactly what I hoped it would be, with Centaurs, Giants, Spiders, Elves, etc... all taking sides

While the deaths were hard to take, it made the story feel more real in that no character was truly safe from harm. I also actually liked the epilogue, although it was a bit cheesy... however, it provided good old fashioned closure.

I made sure to finish it before the week started and I had to go out into the real world... I also avoided sites like ytmnd for weeks because I knew spoilers would be out there. I am happy to say I read the book without anything spoiled for me, and it was a much richer experience because of that.

AdamG · 07/25/2007, 08:02 pm

Hairy Potsmoker, huh huh... Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Actually I've never read a Harry Potter book. :I

Rasher · 07/25/2007, 09:44 pm

Wow! I really am lagging behind. Am I the only one who hasn't finished it? Chapter 14 now.

**Jake** · 07/26/2007, 12:39 am

I don't think I could have asked for more out of the end to Harry Potter. It did everything I was hoping it would do, and usually with a bit of a twist. I liked that it sort of retroactively validated the first two books, which really stopped fitting into the general flow of the story after the third and subsequent books really got rolling. It was nice to have important events in the seventh book have such strong ties to Harry's first becoming a wizard, first living with the Durselys in the first book (which after reading the later books is even more of a big, lame Roald Dahl ripoff than it seemed at the time), and the stuff about the Chamber of Secrets and Riddle's diary from the second -- all fairly impressive and fun to me, especially considering the second book is in many ways just a rehash of the first book, in a Scooby Doo mystery / Monster of the Week sort of way. I agree that the epilogue chapter wasn't some mind blowing thing, but I was glad it was there, especially with absolutely no denouement otherwise.

I hope JK Rowling doesn't do any more books in this universe... short of maybe some sort of anthology of cut parts or developed backstories and B storylines which didn't make it in (a sort of for-pay version of the appendecies which take up the last fifth of Return of the King) or something like that. I hope when it comes to novels she goes on to something new or hangs it up now, quitting while she's ahead.

Pvt._Public · 07/26/2007, 02:56 am

I can't help but feel that J.K. Rowling wrote the second to last chapter and thought "well, that's it. That's the final part of one of the most anticipated books for decades. Yep... Perhaps I should just write a little bit more". Which would explain why the final chapter seems so ill fitting.

I preferred my own ending where it turns out Harry has actually gone insane by being locked under the stairs for several years (with the fumes of various cleaning products), made up the stories of magic and friends, etc. and ends up killing the Dursleys who he imagines as the evil Lord Voldemort. The wonderful feasts he imagined at Hogwarts were actually stray pets he lured back into the cupboard... I could go on?

DrakeFox · 07/26/2007, 04:49 am

Sounds like an interesting ending pvt._public. Maybe not a good one for children, but still an interesting one

**Jake** · 07/26/2007, 07:51 am

That's sort of like Jared (emerson-johnson)'s theory that Sam is actually the extremely delusional one, imagining all sorts of crazy adventures to go on by pretending he's talking to some sort of "commissioner" when he's in fact just talking to a dial tone. Max has been Sam's best friend for years and years, so he just goes along with it, working as hard as he can to keep Sam's crazy constructed reality from collapsing, because Max worries that that would send Sam all the way over the edge and be lost forever. Every night Max goes home and drinks half a bottle of Jack Daniels to keep himself sane.

Squinky · 07/26/2007, 08:28 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pvt._Public

I can't help but feel that J.K. Rowling wrote the second to last chapter and thought "well, that's it. That's the final part of one of the most anticipated books for decades. Yep... Perhaps I should just write a little bit more". Which would explain why the final chapter seems so ill fitting.

Actually, the epilogue is ill-fitting because it's the chapter J.K. Rowling wrote before the rest of the book, supposedly so she'd know where she was going with the series.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pvt._Public

I preferred my own ending where it turns out Harry has actually gone insane by being locked under the stairs for several years (with the fumes of various cleaning products), made up the stories of magic and friends, etc. and ends up killing the Dursleys who he imagines as the evil Lord Voldemort. The wonderful feasts he imagined at Hogwarts were actually stray pets he lured back into the cupboard... I could go on?

Ahaha! Brilliant.

Christovsky · 07/26/2007, 09:11 am

I felt it was an entertaining read; it sagged in the middle, but got very exciting towards the end. The plot-driven bits are far better than the action sequences, which seem rather messy a lot of the time.

I've always liked the books' storylines, but not Rowling's writing talent, unfortunately, and this was probably the clumsiest use of language and grammar I've yet seen of her. Oh well.

Overall I really enjoyed it, though. I just have a habit of dwelling on the negative

P.S. In the epilogue, I instinctively imagined Harry's son Albus to be a miniature version of Dumbledore, white beard and all!

AdamG · 07/26/2007, 11:37 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jake

That's sort of like Jared (emerson-johnson)'s theory that Sam is actually the extremely delusional one, imagining all sorts of crazy adventures to go on by pretending he's talking to some sort of "commissioner" when he's in fact just talking to a dial tone. Max has been Sam's best friend for years and years, so he just goes along with it, working as hard as he can to keep Sam's crazy constructed reality from collapsing, because Max worries that that would send Sam all the way over the edge and be lost forever. Every night Max goes home and drinks half a bottle of Jack Daniels to keep himself sane.

Yeah, I can never decide whether the commissioner really exists myself.

They're both pretty crazy, but I like to think Sam knows it most of the time.

Badwolf · 07/27/2007, 01:10 pm

I've not read it yet, I've had it since launch but I just haven't got around to reading it yet (Just finishing off some Discworld books before I start on it).

I used to be an avid Potter fan (read number 5 in one day, I was that obsessed), but after 5, maybe even 4, I don't feel it was as good as it was.
I've heard 7 is a lot better than 5 and 6, but I'm not in any rush to read it yet.

Derwin · 07/27/2007, 02:29 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jake

I hope JK Rowling doesn't do any more books in this universe... short of maybe some sort of anthology of cut parts or developed backstories and B storylines which didn't make it in (a sort of for-pay version of the appendecies which take up the last fifth of Return of the King) or something like that. I hope when it comes to novels she goes on to something new or hangs it up now, quitting while she's ahead.

On her Today Show interview she spoke of a Harry Potter Encyclopedia style book that she will eventually write to fill in a lot of the blanks. I would like that, as she has clearly developed a lot more to the stories than actually appears in the novels themselves.

Chuck · 08/01/2007, 10:01 pm

Wow, I must be the slowest reader on the boards.

I liked it a lot, and for the first half, thought it was the best-written of the entire series. I thought that the latter half started to devolve into the same wacky stuff that's been in every other book, where the book feels like an old-school British mystery story, but then the plot turns out to hinge on some obscure bit of magic lore the audience had no possible way of guessing.

I'm impressed with it just on a technical level -- to have a book that so many people are waiting for, with all kinds of obscure little details that fans are dying to see one last time, and she managed not only to hit everything, but to tie it all together in a mostly coherent story. But even better than that, the characterization worked. Fred & George Weasley are genuinely funny, there are plenty of clever jokes and dramatic scenes that all worked pretty well. (The Snape chapter was a little trite, but it was fine overall).

The only complaint I have, and it's one I've seen in other places as well, is that we don't see what jobs the characters took, which was such a big deal in earlier books.

**Jake** · 08/02/2007, 09:48 am

If you care enough, JK Rowling does list them all off in an interview, so there's that. She also said that that epilogue was originally hugely long and touched on tons and tons of details, but after re-reading it following finishing writing the seventh book, she realized it was just way too much obsessive info and was awkward, and cut most of it out.

Emily · 08/02/2007, 01:26 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jake

She also said that that epilogue was originally hugely long and touched on tons and tons of details, but after re-reading it following finishing writing the seventh book, she realized it was just way too much obsessive info and was awkward, and cut most of it out.

She should have left the epilogue off completely and published that separately.

Maratanos · 08/02/2007, 03:17 pm

GAH! NO!

Burn, burn, burn!

Harry Potter is teh devilz cuz he uses (OMG) MAGIC to kill evil people!

Ok, just kidding. I don't actually believe that kind of stupid bull.

07/25/2007, 12:03 am	#1
Emily Formerly of the Telltale Team Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: San Francisco Posts: 4,549	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Okay, I just finished it. Anyone else? Overall I thought it was a good read, and a good ending to the series. Wasn't crazy about the epilogue and I thought the book would have done better ending on the last chapter instead, but what can you do. The part when Harry thinks he has to sacrifice himself had me bawling, and that's always an indiciation of a good book in my warped mind. Also I'm disappointed that Sirius was really dead. All this time I thought he'd make a comeback. I am, however, glad that the magic mirror from Book Five played into this one, because I always thought that was an obnoxious red herring.

07/25/2007, 12:22 am	#2
taumel Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 2,654	Hmm i never got interested in Harry Potter... I already had my phase were i read lot's of Fantasy and Science Fiction books and when i tried a Potter book once it just wasn't the right thing for me as i've read much better books already. Last edited by taumel; 07/25/2007 at 12:26 am.

07/25/2007, 12:37 am	#3
Rasher Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 256	It is a fantastic book. My friend got me hooked on the series when she gave me the first two books. I have yet to finish the last book though. A fellow Sims 2 player and a Potter fan? How cool is that? ETA: I'm still hoping that Snape is a good guy underneath it all crosses fingers and toes. Last edited by Rasher; 07/25/2007 at 12:43 am. Reason: Too add something

07/25/2007, 01:19 am	#4
ShaggE Deep Mushroom Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 3,316	Got it at the release party, and finished it the next day Fantastic book! __________________ "This grass feels funny. It feels like... pants." - Kirby A song. Also a song.

07/25/2007, 08:02 pm	#6
AdamG The Maybe Friend for Life Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Michigan, USA Posts: 1,054	Hairy Potsmoker, huh huh... Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Actually I've never read a Harry Potter book. :I __________________ "Stay frosty America!" - Max

07/25/2007, 10:50 am	#5
Derwin Max's PH-Neutral Chewtoy Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Colorado, USA Posts: 736	I thought it was definitely the best in the series. The final battle was exactly what I hoped it would be, with Centaurs, Giants, Spiders, Elves, etc... all taking sides While the deaths were hard to take, it made the story feel more real in that no character was truly safe from harm. I also actually liked the epilogue, although it was a bit cheesy... however, it provided good old fashioned closure. I made sure to finish it before the week started and I had to go out into the real world... I also avoided sites like ytmnd for weeks because I knew spoilers would be out there. I am happy to say I read the book without anything spoiled for me, and it was a much richer experience because of that.

07/25/2007, 09:44 pm	#7
Rasher Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 256	Wow! I really am lagging behind. Am I the only one who hasn't finished it? Chapter 14 now.

07/26/2007, 12:39 am	#8
Jake Telltale Team Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 5,874	I don't think I could have asked for more out of the end to Harry Potter. It did everything I was hoping it would do, and usually with a bit of a twist. I liked that it sort of retroactively validated the first two books, which really stopped fitting into the general flow of the story after the third and subsequent books really got rolling. It was nice to have important events in the seventh book have such strong ties to Harry's first becoming a wizard, first living with the Durselys in the first book (which after reading the later books is even more of a big, lame Roald Dahl ripoff than it seemed at the time), and the stuff about the Chamber of Secrets and Riddle's diary from the second -- all fairly impressive and fun to me, especially considering the second book is in many ways just a rehash of the first book, in a Scooby Doo mystery / Monster of the Week sort of way. I agree that the epilogue chapter wasn't some mind blowing thing, but I was glad it was there, especially with absolutely no denouement otherwise. I hope JK Rowling doesn't do any more books in this universe... short of maybe some sort of anthology of cut parts or developed backstories and B storylines which didn't make it in (a sort of for-pay version of the appendecies which take up the last fifth of Return of the King) or something like that. I hope when it comes to novels she goes on to something new or hangs it up now, quitting while she's ahead. Last edited by Jake; 07/26/2007 at 12:42 am.

07/26/2007, 02:56 am	#9
Pvt._Public Evil Talking Skull Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: New Zealand Posts: 402	I can't help but feel that J.K. Rowling wrote the second to last chapter and thought "well, that's it. That's the final part of one of the most anticipated books for decades. Yep... Perhaps I should just write a little bit more". Which would explain why the final chapter seems so ill fitting. I preferred my own ending where it turns out Harry has actually gone insane by being locked under the stairs for several years (with the fumes of various cleaning products), made up the stories of magic and friends, etc. and ends up killing the Dursleys who he imagines as the evil Lord Voldemort. The wonderful feasts he imagined at Hogwarts were actually stray pets he lured back into the cupboard... I could go on? __________________ That's a good point. I'll counter it with a HURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Yes I am a bastard. I've worked long and hard for the right to be one and what would be the point if I didn't flaunt it?

07/26/2007, 04:49 am	#10
DrakeFox Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: Denmark Posts: 99	Sounds like an interesting ending pvt._public. Maybe not a good one for children, but still an interesting one

07/26/2007, 07:51 am	#11
Jake Telltale Team Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 5,874	That's sort of like Jared (emerson-johnson)'s theory that Sam is actually the extremely delusional one, imagining all sorts of crazy adventures to go on by pretending he's talking to some sort of "commissioner" when he's in fact just talking to a dial tone. Max has been Sam's best friend for years and years, so he just goes along with it, working as hard as he can to keep Sam's crazy constructed reality from collapsing, because Max worries that that would send Sam all the way over the edge and be lost forever. Every night Max goes home and drinks half a bottle of Jack Daniels to keep himself sane.

07/26/2007, 09:11 am	#13
Christovsky Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 207	I felt it was an entertaining read; it sagged in the middle, but got very exciting towards the end. The plot-driven bits are far better than the action sequences, which seem rather messy a lot of the time. I've always liked the books' storylines, but not Rowling's writing talent, unfortunately, and this was probably the clumsiest use of language and grammar I've yet seen of her. Oh well. Overall I really enjoyed it, though. I just have a habit of dwelling on the negative P.S. In the epilogue, I instinctively imagined Harry's son Albus to be a miniature version of Dumbledore, white beard and all!

07/27/2007, 01:10 pm	#15
Badwolf cannon restraint rope Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 837	I've not read it yet, I've had it since launch but I just haven't got around to reading it yet (Just finishing off some Discworld books before I start on it). I used to be an avid Potter fan (read number 5 in one day, I was that obsessed), but after 5, maybe even 4, I don't feel it was as good as it was. I've heard 7 is a lot better than 5 and 6, but I'm not in any rush to read it yet.

08/01/2007, 10:01 pm	#17
Chuck Cajun Zombie Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Location: Location: Posts: 360	Wow, I must be the slowest reader on the boards. I liked it a lot, and for the first half, thought it was the best-written of the entire series. I thought that the latter half started to devolve into the same wacky stuff that's been in every other book, where the book feels like an old-school British mystery story, but then the plot turns out to hinge on some obscure bit of magic lore the audience had no possible way of guessing. I'm impressed with it just on a technical level -- to have a book that so many people are waiting for, with all kinds of obscure little details that fans are dying to see one last time, and she managed not only to hit everything, but to tie it all together in a mostly coherent story. But even better than that, the characterization worked. Fred & George Weasley are genuinely funny, there are plenty of clever jokes and dramatic scenes that all worked pretty well. (The Snape chapter was a little trite, but it was fine overall). The only complaint I have, and it's one I've seen in other places as well, is that we don't see what jobs the characters took, which was such a big deal in earlier books.

08/02/2007, 09:48 am	#18
Jake Telltale Team Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 5,874	If you care enough, JK Rowling does list them all off in an interview, so there's that. She also said that that epilogue was originally hugely long and touched on tons and tons of details, but after re-reading it following finishing writing the seventh book, she realized it was just way too much obsessive info and was awkward, and cut most of it out.

08/02/2007, 03:17 pm	#20
Maratanos Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 851	GAH! NO! Burn, burn, burn! Harry Potter is teh devilz cuz he uses (OMG) MAGIC to kill evil people! Ok, just kidding. I don't actually believe that kind of stupid bull. __________________ I'll combine your MOM with those items!

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