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[olimario]

I don't want to wade through the spoiler thread to find out what everyone eventually thought when they finished. Please just give some kind of score or ranking according to the other books in the series and give a couple comments.

4>6=3>2>1>5
I thought this was one of the better books. Easily up there with 3 and 4. I felt Hogwarts come to life like it never did in 5 and I felt the story was consistantly interesting and tightly knit. I've heard complaints about the focus on relationships, but it really was well done and I felt chills when

Spoiler

Ginny grabs Harry's hand when he's looking at Dumbledore's dead body and he goes with the hand not knowing who it belonged to until later.

. It really sets the stage for 7 and it really puts the odds against Harry.

Spoiler

And even though I read the spoiler before the book, Dumbledore's death was so incredibly well done and powerful. The whole conversation with Malfoy was brilliant

 

[MrCheez]

Hmm how to rank them... I'd say...

4 > 3 > 6 > 5 > 1 > 2

It was pretty good, but I found myself bored a little during the first 2/3rds of the entire book. It just felt like there wasn't much going on. Slughorn was a boring character,

Spoiler

the Malfoy mystery wasn't much of a mystery, and not enough seemed to "happen" with the Half-Blooded Prince's book (I also figured out that Snape was the HBP right away, so there wasn't much mystery to that either). The Voldemort backstory stuff was interesting, though.

I will say that I am really excited of the prospect of

Spoiler

the main story/adventure largely taking place outside of Hogwarts

in book 7.

Spoiler

It seemed like the usual format of going to classes and doing all the usual school stuff (like going to Hogsmeade or getting detention, etc) was really starting to get old by this book, IMO.

 

[olimario]

Fair criticisms
I, however, quite liked Slughorn and he did more than just play a teacher.

Spoiler

We saw the scene where he was convinced to come to Hogwarts...
Then we saw why Harry needed to be there to convince him... because he was a collector
Then we saw why Dumbledore needed him there... to get the correct memory
And we saw why it was so hard to get the memory... because he always wants to be liked
And we saw how Harry got the memory out of him... using his love for his favorite students

Looking back I'd say he was quite a brilliant character, actually.

 

[teh_pwn]

It's been so long, but I'm guessing:

3 > 6 > 5 > 4 > 2 > 1

 

[Bowser]

Here's my ranking:

3 > 4=6 > 5 > 1 > 2

 

[Kobun Heat]

I think what happens in book seven is going to greatly influence how people look back on this one, as JKR has said that they're like two halves of the same book. All the Slughorn/Snape stuff seemed to me like buildup for book seven rather than a self-contained story.

What's unique to this book is its emphasis on love -- not merely the two main relationships finally coming to the surface but all the other little references and mini-plot threads woven throughout. I think this was a fantastic way to deal with all the romantic threads without them distracting from the plot -- by putting it all here in one book, basically overloading the book with romance, so that most readers can grasp that all this, rather than a diversion, is significant to how the series ends.

 

[Drensch]

5=6>4>3>2>1

 

[Son of Godzilla]

3>6>4=1>5>2

I guess. Really liked it even though nothing much happened. Scenes like the luck potion and the time turner are a hell of alot better than the random "action" climaxes in the others.

 

[El_Victor]

3=4 > 6 > 5 > 1=2

 

[jiggle]

3>4>6>5>1>2

 

[El_Victor]

3>4>6>5>1>2

Yeah, just copy me you little..

 

[=W=]

3 > 4 = 6 > 5 > 1 > 2

 

[Bowser]

3 > 4 = 6 > 5 > 1 > 2

copycat

 

[=W=]

copycat

Ha! So it is. Congrats on having good taste.

 

[jiggle]

Yeah, just copy me you little..

My version is better.

 

[pnjtony]

Like book 6 okay, it was certainly interesting from a historical point of view, bu my favorites have been 4 and 5. 4 for the length and video game like quality and of course the end in the cemetary and 5 becuase of all the rage from harry, the smiting of umbridge, the absolute anarchy at Hogwarts and on top of all that, an awesome wizard fight with a lot of wizards.

 

[methodman]

This book is like GRRM's A Feast For Crows and whatever book 5 is titled. Most of the main characters (Jon, Dany, Tyrion) are going to be missing from AFFC but they will be there for book 5. Well, not really like harry potter 6 - 7 but you can't judge hp6 w/o reading hp7 because this book really didn't have a plot like the other books. Nothing happened at the start that got fixed by the end (plot for hp1-5). So i think once hp7 comes out, we'll know how good this book was to set up the next one.