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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) (Paperback).
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$14.99
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$8.99 
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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6).
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$12.99
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$10.18
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: 10th Anniversary Edition (Harry Potter).
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$30.00
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$15.71
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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5).
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$12.99
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$10.18
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Harry Potter Paperback Box Set (Books 1-6).
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$56.94
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$35.87
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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2).
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$24.95
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$22.45
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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3).
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$7.99
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$7.99
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Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire.
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$30.95
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$23.54
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Harry Potter Paperback Boxed Set (Books 1-7).
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$86.93
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$54.77
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Harry Potter Boxset Books 1-7.
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$195.00
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$122.85
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J. K. Rowling has created a fantastic world of wizards, ghosts, trolls and muggles that has completely revitalized a love of reading in both kids and adults all over the world.
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The Deluxe Edition includes an exclusive insert featuring near-scale reproductions of Mary GrandPré's interior art, as well as never-before-seen full-color frontispiece art on special paper. The custom-designed slipcase is foil-stamped and contains a full-cloth case book that has been blind-stamped on front and back cover with foil stamping on the spine. The book includes full-color endpapers featuring the jacket art from the trade edition and a wraparound jacket featuring art created especially for this edition by Mary GrandPré.
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This is arguably the most "hyped" book in history, and if J.K. Rowling had to sneak down to the kitchen for a glass of red wine to calm her nerves while writing The Goblet of Fire (as she said she did), one wonders what assuaged her while writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The collective breath of tens of millions of readers has been held for two years...and now...was it worth the wait? Did Ms. Rowling live up to the hype? (For that, amongst hundreds of questions, is really the only question that matters.) The answer, most assuredly, is YES. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is told in a strikingly different style than the previous six books - even different from The Half Blood Prince, and, I daresay, it's a better written, better edited, tighter narrative. And while the action is lively and well paced throughout, Rowling found a way to answer most of our questions while introducing new and complex ideas. What fascinated me was this: Some people were right, with regard to who is good, who is bad, who will live, who will die - but almost nobody got the "why" part correct. I truthfully expected an exciting but rather predictable ending, but instead was thrown for a loop. We've known that Rowling is fiendishly clever for years - but I didn't think she was *this* clever. Not since turning the final page of The Return of the King twenty-eight years ago have I felt such a keen sense of loss. My love affair (indeed, everyone's love affair, I imagine) with all things Harry began somewhere in the first three chapters of The Sorcerer's Stone, and has lasted, on this side of the Atlantic, three months shy of nine years. For all that time we have waited and wondered - was Dumbledore right to trust Snape? Will Ron and Hermione get together? What's to become of Ginny and Harry? What really happened on that tower, when Dumbledore was blasted backwards, that "blast" atypical of the Avada Kedavra curse as we've seen it when used throughout the series. So many more questions than those listed here, and so many devilishly well-hidden hints. The answers, as I hinted above, will shock and awe you. When first we met Harry Potter, he was "The Boy Who Lived", with an address of "The Cupboard Under the Stairs". Who could help but bleed sympathy for Harry, treated abysmally - abused, really - by the only blood relatives he had, and forced to live under said stairs by those awful Muggles, the Dursleys? It was a sensationally brilliant introduction, one that ensured that our heartstrings would be plucked and enchanted to sing. He was The Boy Who Lived. Since reading that first book, we have enjoyed Rowling's spry sense of humor - portraits that spoke, stairways that moved at any given moment, Hagrid jinxing Dudley so that a pigs tail grew from his behind, Fred and George's fantastic creations, etc, etc., etc., |
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This 17-disc audio version of the final Harry Potter book is a worthy way to experience the story without reading it. It features the rich baritone of narrator Jim Dale, who tells the tale with just the right understated touch, supplying all of the characters' voices.
As for Dale's accent, it's appropriately British but not at all too thick. Each word is clear and easy to understand. If you've bought any of the earlier Potter audio CDs you know what to expect: Dale narrated all of those, too. By the way, note that this is an UNABRIDGED audio book. Listening to it all takes 21 hours! The story is dark, and too violent for younger kids, but overall one of the best in the Harry Potter series. Nothing seems forced or thrown together. Author J.K. Rowling wraps up her many plot points and reveals the fates of her characters in ways that almost always surprise you, but afterward seem inevitable. And how she does it is so inventive! Many throwaway moments and whispered remarks from earlier books foreshadow what happens here, and devices that had little importance before, such as Sirius's flying motorcycle, now play key roles. While creating yet another gripping tale, the author also ties her entire epic together with the skill of a true literary master. As a writer myself, I really admire her skill. (Last time I checked, Rowling was outselling me by about, oh, a billion to one.) In addition, the book treats its title character with the complexity he deserves. It portrays the (now) young man as disillusioned, full of doubt, overwhelmed -- a tortured soul who, though a responsible leader in an all-out war, often seems to yearn to do nothing more than sweet-talk Ginny Weasley. Parents should know, however, that this one is a real creepfest, with the most explicitly violent scenes of any book in the series. It's way too brutal for grade schoolers. Also, unlike the earlier Potter tales, the far-reaching vocabulary requires about a 6th-grade education. |
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Before the release of the seventh and last book of the Harry Potter series, I re-read all the preceding volumes. Throughout, I followed how the author developed her grand theme of Right vs Wrong, the strong vs the weak and the evils of the misuse of power. How was Rowling to end this series? Obviously, the Apocalypse was at hand, and the heroic struggle between Harry Potter and the evil Voldemort would be the climax of the series.
While we waited for the last book, rumors abounded. Fake spoilers floated over the internet like the soul-sucking Dementors, threatening to extinguish the enjoyment people would get from this final volume. So, no spoilers from this reviewer. All I will say is that "Deathly Hallows" lived up to my expectations and in fact, ended pretty much as I imagined it would. Rowling keeps true to her theme right to the end and to her artistic vision as well.
There is plenty of action right from the get-go. This is by far the most exciting of the seven books, with duels, battles, fights, daring escapes and amazing twists of fortune. There are plenty of surprises and also many reasons to weep. The action sometimes is non-stop, but from time to time, there are welcome respites in the action, times for moments of tenderness or friendship between surprising pairings of characters. The sub-theme of the redeptive power of Love is evident in these idylls.
J. K. Rowling is a master writer who has created an amazing work of art with the Harry Potter series and just as any master craftsman, she has chosen the perfect finish for a fine series of books. I look forward to new series with entire new worlds or...perhaps this is really the end. Some authors do write themselves out when they've said their say. I don't know. But I do know this author is one I enjoy reading and I hope we have many more new adventures to discover from her pen. Bravo!
Joanna Daneman
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*SPOILERS: please don't read if you haven't finished the book*
After reading the seventh and final installment of the Harry Potter series, as well as many of these reviews, I simply cannot believe that anyone would rate this book with less than 5 stars. I have read reviews where people say that the ending is too "light and fluffy", or that "Harry should have died", and that the whole deathly hallows part of the plot is pointless because, in the end, Harry does not keep the hallows. Can no-one here see why JK Rowling ended the series as she did? I grew up with Harry Potter, the first book having been released when I was about 9 or 10. I cannot express how depressing it would have been had Harry died, for(forgive me for the cheeziness) if Harry had died surely there was no hope for the rest of us. Furthermore, the ending is not "light and fluffy". Harry overcomes Voldemort as his character develops, as he finally understands how to finish the Dark Lord once and for all- as he allows himself to be sacrificed for the benefit of "the greater good". The deathly hallows merely stand as the temptation for Harry to become all-powerful, to make the same mistake that Voldemort and Dumbledore(when he was young) made. His choice to turn down the opportunity to evade death not only speaks on his true character, but sets him apart from those who would try to harness this power. Even if Harry had chosen to keep the Hallows for good purposes, would he not eventually turn into the same type of tyrant as Grindelwald, as Voldemort, and as Dumbledore would have become? Yes, the hallows did appear and disappear in this one book, but because Harry chose NOT to keep them for himself, he chose the path of the pure-hearted. By this action, we truly see how much Harry has grown and matured. We also see just how different Harry really is from Voldemort, a question Harry himself had been wondering for some time. So for those of you that bash this book for not ending in total destruction, and claim that "life is not fair and evil really does win", please remember that life is only what you make of it. Only those of us who grew up with Harry can really say just how much his life means to us, and I would just like to thank JK Rowling for this wonderful finishing piece of the Harry Potter series. |