Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Year: 2000

Abstract:
Harry's back for his fourth year (half way through) at Hogwarts and this year there is something special in the works. Will he survive? Of course, he will there are three more books, but will everyone else?

Advanced Mind
Exploration/Quest
Military/Fighting
Horror
Magic
Advanced Technology
Time Travel/Alternate History
Science
Aliens/Beasties
Contemporality

Other books in this series: Harry Potter
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone [1997]
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets [1998]
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban [1999]

tyranist's Review
As the world knows, this book was much anticipated. I was among that crowd. Ms. Rowling's particular writing style is compelling in a way that little else is. Was the hype deserved? Absolutely. Once again, she has delivered a marvellous little tale that kept me up late at night reading. The character development continues a little, but really Harry is still Harry when it is all over. The world development on the other hand, expands considerably. You'll love this one just as much as the others.
Now I'm going to counter something that Spectre will say below but that you likely haven't read yet. He accuses the book of having to many mixed idioms. My disagreement is in two parts. First, I would blame the editors who ported it for the American edition rather than Ms. Rowling. Second, I just plain don't think it matters. As captivating as her world is to me, it has always had just enough of a British feel to it that it felt right without alienating the American audience. I guess I won't be loaning Spectre any of my Doctor Who books.

Spectre's Review
WARNING!!! SPOILER SPOILER, SPOILER!!!
Oops. Did we forget to edit this for British content? They let slip a couple things in this one. It makes it quite humorous, though. As you read this one, keep an eye out for the enedited British slang and general nouns (they have a couple we consider quite rude, but to them it's just a word describing an everyday object). Also look for the Americanisms used very poorly and inappropriately (ever here some school teacher try and talk to a kid in current jive?) THere are a few more technical inaccuracies here (and I'm not talking about whether something is possible or impossible, I'm talking about facts she's established previously in the series, and then altering them to better fit the story in this one). There are only a couple of them, though, and their not that bad. You'll find them.
On with the story then, now that I got that out of my system (tyranist will tell you I can't just have fun, I ALWAYS have to nitpick something for technical inaccuracy, be it probability of something happening, or a rule in the story's world). I loved this book for its darkness. Can you tell I love darkness? Is there a reason why C. S. Friedman consistently gets very high marks from me? Yes, I think so! (Where scifi is concerned, I'm a military sf guy. Where fantasy is concerned, the darker it is, the more I love it). Someone dies. And you know what? A few someones die. And you know what again? Ms. Rowling has proven her writing ability by capturing an essence most writings cannot grasp. She has built a story with characters in it, where I actually grieved when Cedric died. I really liked him.
That's when you know an author is good. There were two instances where she pulled something and I wanted it to change. When they were drawing names from the Goblet of Fire to see who the Triwizard champions would be, I was disappointed, I mean REALLY disappointed, when Harry was not the Hogwarts champion. I was sitting there, thinking in my usual way, "Damn, that sucks. What the hell is the story then? Is Harry, Ron, and Her-my-own-ee going to run off and spike Snapes anti-bad-gas potion while everyone else is involved with the title of the book?" Well, thankfully, no. In this case, Rowling came around Harry popped out, the impossible fourth champion.
Well then, when Cedric died, I thought, "Maybe there's a loophole in the Avada Kadavera spell that says if you counteract the spell from a wand that was made from the same source as the caster's wand, you can reverse the spell." Nope. She actually stuck with her absolute law she invented, and Cedric stayed good and dead. Yes I was disappointed, yes I spent several hours thinking about how the book could have been re-written to allow Cedric to survive, and that's precisely why I think J. K. Rowling is a superb writer. When an author can make a reader feel that strongly towards the characters in their books (and not even the main characters!), you know the writing quality is very high.
Oh, and can we say, "Hell yes, there's going to be several sequels!"
Date posted: 2000 09 06

Spectre's Rating
The best so far.

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