Two words on the new Harry Potter

0. It's much better written than the last, with a few very funny dry subtle comments, at least one scene of affecting horror, and a much tighter development; but after the opening chapters I got where it was going and the rest seemed for the most part like an exercise, one which Harry isn't smart enough to figure out. For those who've read the book, here's a brilliant if overenthused explication of what I thought was so obvious but which (it turns out) smart people (see recommended links) don't even agree on.

1. The existence of a potion described in the book makes the action in the entire series nonsense, and the implications of which for the ending of this book make my annoyance at the main character's (s') dimness given word 0 even stronger.


I still stand by this, incidentally.