I think they're pretty okay. Goblet of Fire sure didn't deserve a Hugo, but it's actually pretty good and shows that the series is maturing. Books 5-7, or at least a couple of them could possibly be terrific. Failing that, my hope is that hey'll act as a gateway series for kids to get them into sci-fi and fantasy. (note upon looking at Hugo list: shit Michael Swanwick's been cleaning up on short stories! Good for him.)
Just on a lark, here's a short list of works that JK may have lifted ideas from: Diana Wynne Jones' Chestromanci books, especially Witch Week(Hot damn, Hayao Miyazaki's directing Howl's Moving Castle! Sweet!), the Hunter: Books of Magic comics, to a lesser extent the Young Wizard books by Diane Duane, and that's all I can think of off the top of my head. Any others?
I'd note, though, that Rowlings has done a good job of adding to her source material, whatever it is. None of the books I listed really has ALL the elements of Harry Potter, although there was some noise made over a few...
Harry Potter books- do they suck ass?
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Peregrin Toker
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As a side note, it would be nice if Rowling paid a homage to Lovecraft by mentioning the Necronomicon in a future Harry Potter novel....Sriad wrote: Just on a lark, here's a short list of works that JK may have lifted ideas from: Diana Wynne Jones' Chestromanci books, especially Witch Week(Hot damn, Hayao Miyazaki's directing Howl's Moving Castle! Sweet!), the Hunter: Books of Magic comics, to a lesser extent the Young Wizard books by Diane Duane, and that's all I can think of off the top of my head. Any others?
I'd note, though, that Rowlings has done a good job of adding to her source material, whatever it is. None of the books I listed really has ALL the elements of Harry Potter, although there was some noise made over a few...
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"No, actually I would HATE to have a cookie, you vapid waste of inedible flesh!"
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I think Harry needs a Ctulhu plushie.Simon H.Johansen wrote:As a side note, it would be nice if Rowling paid a homage to Lovecraft by mentioning the Necronomicon in a future Harry Potter novel....Sriad wrote: Just on a lark, here's a short list of works that JK may have lifted ideas from: Diana Wynne Jones' Chestromanci books, especially Witch Week(Hot damn, Hayao Miyazaki's directing Howl's Moving Castle! Sweet!), the Hunter: Books of Magic comics, to a lesser extent the Young Wizard books by Diane Duane, and that's all I can think of off the top of my head. Any others?
I'd note, though, that Rowlings has done a good job of adding to her source material, whatever it is. None of the books I listed really has ALL the elements of Harry Potter, although there was some noise made over a few...
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They're quite good and get darker as the seiries goes on. I was against reading them at first as i thought they were kids books and i had an anti populist thing going on (i'm not gonna read it just cos everyone else is). Then i was stuck for a few days with nothing to read and my girlfriend had been telling me to read them so i thought i'd give it a try and was quite impressed. The films are complete toilet in my opinion though.
Just a thought, but how do you know they're good childrens books if you've never read them?Morat wrote:They're good children's books, but I wouldn't want to read one.
...we just have to decide what to do with the time given to us, and do the best we can.....