Literature Harry Potter and the Boredom of the Reader
I believe that this series fell off the broomstick after Azkaban. The first three books were crisply written, tightly-paced adventures that appealed to children and adults alike. The latter four books, however, are overwritten, under-edited, ploddingly paced affairs suitable only for the hardcore crowd. Phoenix is one such book. Here I'll list the problems:
VILLAINS: I know that Umbridge is supposed to be annoying but for goodness sake, this book is over 800 pages. We don't need to see her Kick The Dog again and again. Umbridge isn't annoying because she's evil but because she's poorly written. A good villain should make you hate the character, not the writer. The same goes for strawmen like Fudge.
LENGTH: Again, this book is over 800 pages. Why? Do we really need so many irrelevant details and subplots that only serve to pad the pages? Remember the first three books? Remember how all the little details complemented the plot instead of overwhelming it? Did anyone care about Grawp, SPEW and house cleaning? This leads to...
THE PLOT: The first three books were mysteries with a sense of fair-play and a surprising twist at the end. There was build-up and there was payoff. Phoenix, however, is a stifling account of everything that happens in Harry's fifth year. What plot there is hinges on characters, namely Harry, acting like idiots. There's a reveal at the end which is pretty cliche and doesn't break much ground compared to previous twists. Very little of consequence happens and by the end we're pretty much where we started, give or take a few characters.
HARRY: I understand that Harry's angry, that he's fifteen, that he has issues. What I don't understand is why he's the protagonist. He's as dumb as a post in this one and he functions more as a plot device than a character. Hermione would make a better protagonist.
I hated Phoenix but for the one brilliant touch that is Luna Lovegood.
There is an inherent gamble when a creator becomes famous called the Lucas Zone. This is when a creator is given free and total rein on what to do. At best, the creator can tell the story they always wanted to tell and people will love them for it. At worst, the creator gets high off their own success and makes a story for the creator first and the audience second. Harry Potter, post-Azkaban, edges towards the latter.
Literature Your Mileage May Vary
I really enjoyed this book. I felt that it was a break between the action of the fourth book and the action of the seventh, revving slowing up through the fifth and sixth. This installment takes the time to focus on the characters as they face one of the toughest challenges of being teenagers: complete and utter disillusionment.
Gone is the at-least-outwardly-cheerful world of the first, second, third, and fourth books. In this one, the government is blatantly corrupt, the adults are all distant, preoccupied, and deliberately hiding information from you, everyone seems to hate you, no one seems to care about your problems, and you are on your own.
Harry deals with the large problems — the verbal and physical abuse by an authority figure comes to mind — and with the smaller problems, such as jealousy, competition, lack of acceptance, and suspicion from his peers. He deals with feeling abandoned by his mentor and by his community. And he deals very obviously with a serious case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Relationships are at the forefront here. So is the theme of duty.
War is hell, and this book takes the pains to blend the realities of growing up with the gathering storm of the coming battles. The book is a slow read, but I felt that having this lull in the action really made the upcoming books meaningful. You got to know the characters here. You learned to really care.
Literature Book 5
I refer to this only as "book 5" since it is undeserving of a proper title, and certainly not one as misleadingly awesome as the one it was given. Now the quality of J.K. Rowlings novels could be said to have been improving prior to this novels release, certainly its immediate predecessor was leaps and bounds beyond its any of the first three novels. Indeed it seems Rowlings talent had finally been honed to the point where not only could she pen a best seller, but that the very elements that made her novels great were now being applied throughout the entirety of the novel. Then I read her 5th installment in the series. What a dissappointment, gone were the engrossing prose and constantly changing high paced plot. Alas in its place was a cyclic plot growing more Avilicious with each repitition. It was so aggrevating to find that NOTHING HAPPENS IN THIS BOOK, again and again and again, and its the same nothing every time. In hindsight, yes some seemingly insignificant details prove important to the plot in later books and a few more obvious plot points within the work are addressed, but TOO FEW and far between. The only reason I was even able to finish it was the hope that it would get better. Unfortunately when I finally closed the back cover, I did so with the sense that it never had. Watch the film, or read the cliff notes, they are a much more satisfying way to got the major plot points needed to continue with the series which fortunately does get better. The spoiler free summary, not that ther is much to spoil since this part of the plot actually hijacks the expected plot set up in the previous novel, of the rest of "book 5's" plot would be as follows: here is a new character, now, hate. her. hate her hate her hate her hate her hate her hate her hate her hate her hate her hate her hate her hate her hate her hate her hate her hate her Hate Her Hate Her Hate Her Hate Her HATE HER HATE HER HATE HER HATE HER hate her hate her hate her... do you hate her yet? So you can see how this could get annoying quickly. So annoying in fact that it taints what little good this book has to offer.
Literature Underrated Gem
I know that this book has a strong hatedom and that it’s even inspired Creator Backlash with J. K. Rowling regarding it as her least favourite of the Harry Potter series.
I strongly disagree with all of those critiques. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was too long but this book was not.
Sadist Teacher Dolores Umbridge very quickly becomes a Hate Sink due to all her Kick the Dog moments. And I have absolutely no problem whatsoever with the fact that a character that we’re supposed to hate is easily hateable.
I like how Cornelius Fudge is an extremely thinly veiled allegory for Neville Chamberlain and how Sirius reveals Voldemort was once a silvertongued demagogue. I like the Broken Pedestal involving James Potter. And the smaller scale Broken Pedestal involving Dumbledore.
Bellatrix Lestrange is a delightfully diabolical complete monster though after it’s happened three times it’s no longer possible to take escaping Azkaban seriously.
The scene of Neville’s parents at the hospital was a pure TearJerker.
I like that Jerkass Has a Point about Harry needing to shield himself from Voldemort’s psychic attacks. Especially after the end of the book.
Book 1 revealed that the prophecy said the Big Bad would return and that he was never after Harry’s parents just Harry. And Book 3 foretold his return which Book 4 delivered. Now that is followed through with when it’s confirmed that Voldemort wanted to kill Harry to prevent a prophecy of Harry defeating him. And I like how it plays with the Chosen One trope with the suggestion that it might be Neville.
I like how it explores the psychological impact of Harry having witnessed Cedric’s murder. I like how it kills off Black confirming that Cedric’s death wasn’t one off occurrence there is a war. I like how it’s unambiguous that Harry won’t be able to be Aang from Avatar but will have to kill the Big Bad. And I like how Harry swearing not to forgive Snape sets the stage for the {sequel}}. And how it deconstructed the Happiness in Slavery trope of the previous book.
And I like how Harry’s “THEN I DON’T WANT TO BE HUMAN” demonstrates how a Warlock would be willing to cut out his heart and confirms that he and Voldemort are Not So Different. As well as Ginny’s What the Hell, Hero? about forgetting she was possessed because But for Me, It Was Tuesday.
And Harry’s using the Cold-Blooded Torture curse on Bellatrix after she kills Sirius was an impressive turning point.
And I love the character of Luna Lovegood, introduced here.
Are there problems with it? Sure. It has Harry speak in Caps Lock whenever he’s angry which is annoying. And he probably should have figured out he’d have to kill Voldemort by this point. So it is flawed. But is it bad? Not even remotely.