Love, Blood and Rhetoric

Following on from Imperium, Lustrum is the second novel in a trilogy apparently planned by Robert Harris. Like the first novel, it's a fictionalized account of the fascinating life of the Roman senator Cicero, self-styled Father of Rome and the forerunner of modern politics and one of the most gifted and powerful politicians at a time when Julius Caesar was hell-bent on turning Rome from democracy to dictatorship.

It's said that history is always written from the point of view of the winners and Caesar is usually one of those most glorified. What makes this so fascinating is that it's written from the perspective of those who opposed him, who fought for the Republic. Caesar, here, is not a sympathetic character, but shown as a political mastermind, cold-blooded would-be dictator, ruthless in his pursuit of power.

But it's Cicero who is the central figure, although it is his constant clashes with Caesar and his allies that form the heart of this novel. While Imperium dealt with Cicero's unexpected rise to power, from humble beginnings to voice of the people, this novel deals with both his successes and his failures. Cicero nearly single-handedly saved the Roman empire from armed rebellion and civil war, but made powerful enemies in the process.

Unlike many novels set in Rome, however, this does not deal with the military victories, nor the lusty excesses, except in passing, but deals more in politics and legal drama. It's a success of Harris' focus that he deals with the affairs of the senate and the people and avoids sensationalism, instead bringing the well-known persona to life with deft, human touches and an eye for character rather than dealing in archetypes. Once again the book is written from the viewpoint of Cicero's slave Tiro, inventor of shorthand, and it's that voice that allows the great and the famous to be brought down to human levels - for example, his first, and main recollection of Mark Antony is his terrible acne.

Unlike his recent political thrill The Ghost, Harris once again triumphs by returning to historical events rather than attempting to be contemporary. The life of Cicero is a fascinating one and it's made even more fascinating by Harris' prose, lifting details and dialogue from Cicero's surviving writings, but also imbuing the semi-mythical figures with much humanity as they weave their political webs.

Another Harry Potter book down and, although I found it an inoffensive read, once again I'm left to wonder why this series of novels got kids and adults salivating so badly. While there's stuff to enjoy here, it's undoubtedly the weakest of the series and frankly the series as a whole seems to have serious flaws, particularly with pacing and plotting, and this book's no exception to the pattern - three quarters filler with only the last quarter that seems to tie into the over-arching plot, stuffed with rushed action and extended exposition.

And the main problem I have with J.K. Rowling is the way she constantly builds things up over the course of a novel and then immediately deflates them. It's happened a lot over the last couple of novels. For example, in the Order of the Phoenix, the whole weighty novel builds around Voldemort trying to get his hands on a prophesy about him and Harry. The whole novel. And when it's destroyed, it's suddenly revealed that Dumbledore knew what was in it all the time. Not only that, but in this novel it's revealed Voldemort does too, since Snape overheard and told him. And then there's the fact that when Harry reveals the prophesy to his friends there's literally the line from Hermione saying "Yes, we thought it would be something like that." Well, if everyone bloody knew or guessed, why was it a big chuffing deal?

Similarly in this novel, there's the whole deal of Slughorn's missing memory. This is built up as being of utmost importance. Dumbledore insists that Harry discover what was in it, proclaiming it to be the most important mission Harry can have. When he discovers about the Horcruxes and reveals it to Dumbledore instead of the grand revelation, the rug's immediately pulled out from under the plot. "Oh yeah," says Dumbledore. "Multiple Horcruxes? I knew that already. Figured it out from that diary. Oh, and I've spent the last few months hunting them down and already found two, so, y'know, bit of a waste of your time, really."

It's frustrating because it basically negates vast swathes of the last couple of novels. The prophesy's not really important since Dumbledore and Voldemort already knew all about it. The two thirds of the novel that Harry spends trying to get the missing memory from Slughorn seems like a waste of bloody time. It's these plotting issues that really kill it for me. There's plenty of good in the books, but again, a hell of a lot of filler and then what plot there is is negated by pointless reasons for keeping Harry in the dark and sending him to discover what most of the characters already knew or had figured out. And the whole "mystery" of the identity of the Half Blood Prince, which is barely even a plot point, despite being the title.

That said, there's some good here - the Draco plotline's solid, there's plenty of dark and thrilling moments, the climax exciting, Slughorn's intriguing, the early chapters are atmospheric - but then it all seems to dwindle away. In a situation where Voldemort is murdering people daily, the danger is raised considerably, the bulk of the novel being about who wins which quidditch matches, who's dating who and other rather trite distraction is genuinely bewildering. Possibly not as bewildering as where the hell the sudden romances between Hermione and Ron and Harry and Ginny (who hitherto had the character development of a cardboard cutout) came from, but bewildering nevertheless.

I can sympathise with JK Rowling though. What she delivered in this novel was basically the same sort of stuff as previously. But expectations for the series seemed to be through the roof - far more than anyone can deliver or, in my opinion, than the series has ever delivered. There's some entertaining bits for sure, but the expectation that things would be kicked up a gear with the penultimate novel certainly aren't met. It doesn't work as a stand alone novel, like the early books did, and aside from the last fifth of the novel, it doesn't add anything much to the over-arching plot either.

And bad show for having all of my personal ship Luna and Neville's kick-assery happening off camera. Again. Would it have killed to have them appear properly as characters and not just mentioned in passing? I love those crazy kids and would certainly have enjoyed a page or two devoted to their battles alongside the Order of the Phoenix over another page of Won Wons.

So, I've just finished reading the fourth book in the Harry Potter series. And the longest. My conclusion when I saw the movie was that it was a rather slight story with lots of filler. My conclusion when I read the book was that the movie did a good job slimming down the story, because the book is filled with so much padding and filler material. It might be the longest book in the series so far, but it's certainly not the most accomplished.

Where the movie succeeded was streamlining the action sequences into a rapidly moving plotline. In the novel, the action sequences are less fully realized and thrilling and also interspersed with, I felt, unnecessary subplots and diversions. At least a third of the book, all the distractions of Hermione's interest in House Elves that went nowhere, for example, and the Rita Skeeter stuff, could have been cut entirely and the book would lose nothing. In fact it would be improved since these, and the subplot with Ron sulking at Harry for far too long or Hermione and Ron's bitching were irritations more than thrilling. I find Dobby to be an annoying character anyway and an entire subplot of the book focused on the House Elves which then just meanders off into nothing both feels like filler and saddles the readers with more bloody Dobby.

In fact, it's only the last 50 or so pages which are pivotal and even then, they're pretty much pure exposition to explain the previous 600 or so pages and stuff that's happened to Voldemort since killing Harry's parents. At which point it starts reading more like a text book than a novel. Lord Voldemort doesn't really come across as a compelling or interesting villain because he spends about five sold pages barely pausing for breath in his Bond-villainesque explanation of his past and future plans. And then when he does fight Harry, once again a random magical incident (IE a fluke with no build up and minimal explanation) is what allows Harry to escape, smacking of those magical swords in hats and phoenix tears that acted as deus ex machina in previous volumes. While the mysteries wrought throughout the book are nicely tied up, these instant fixes are an irritation.

It's funny that so much of the book is filler when the one character who deserved to get some fleshing out, namely Cedric, never was. It made the emotional impact of the climax weaker when instead we'd had graphic descriptions of Ron sulking for 50 pages or a blow by blow account of the Quidditch world cup.

Other than that, the character work does, at least, ring true this time around. The main three are childish, irritating to the point of wanting to bang their heads together when they've had yet another falling out over nothing and mostly immature with occasional flashes of acting like adults - in other words, more like the 14 year olds they're supposed to be. Unlike when the characters were supposed to be 11 and acting far older. The only flaw in making the characters act their ages is that, frankly, teenage kids are as irritating all all get out and there's limited appeal in reading about yet another sulk one of them's got into.

However, the formula's starting to get a bit tired now and it seems like this is the book where Rowling started to believe her own hype and was left freedom to roam without an editor's pruning shears cutting away the dead wood. As another review puts it nicely: "It's as if one were making chocolate chip cookies and doubled the recipe for dough but put in the same amount of chips as for one batch".

Finished Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Started on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Quite a high turn around at the moment - the books are and easy read and I'm romping through them in four or five sittings.

A mixed bag in Chamber of Secrets. I think it helped that I'd seen the film before, which I felt was better in some regards. Kenneth Branagh's overdone hamminess was so over-the-top in the movie it became silly enough to be entertaining - in the book the character of Gilderoy Lockhart was so obviously incompetent, it's hard to believe Dumbledore wasn't being given his marching orders for hiring him and without the visuals of Branagh's performance to add some fun, the character seemed pointless. Lockhart, in the end, contributed nothing, not even accidentally, to the climax of the story. It almost felt like the book was written with the intent of having some pay off with the character at the end - perhaps his memory spells holding the key to defeating the villain - but that never came. In the end, I was left wondering quite what the character added to the book.

It felt particularly jarring given all the work to get Lockhart on scene in the climax and then to pluck a bunch of magical fixes from nowhere to help defeating the villain. Be it phoenixes springing from nowhere, magic swords appearing literally at the drop of a hat, magically healing tears, poison teeth - it felt like Rowling couldn't settle on one way to defeat the villain and so just threw everything in. Which could have made for an impressive climax, but just means, instead, everything's tossed into the two or three pages it takes to defeat the villain. It's all deeply unsatisfying when the revealed villain is a great twist - too much focus on that, perhaps, and not enough thought given on how to defeat the monster from the Chamber of Secrets.

Then there's the issue of Harry and friends refusing to trust anyone who previously they had been given reason to trust. The logic behind lying to Dumbledore, for example, is lost on me and the sudden distrust of Harry's friends and classmates on the flimsiest of pretexts gets very old very quickly. In fact, with all the lying and stealing done throughout the book, I'm

And then there was Dobby the bloody House bloody Elf who was just as annoying in the book as onscreen. Can't stand the little bugger.

So that's the bad. The good? Harry certainly came across as more sympathetic this time around and less of a jock. That was a definite improvement and likewise the supporting cast, Lockhart aside, are nicely handled. My one issue was with the character of Ginny, who's barely sketched out and when she becomes the focus of the villain's plot, the concern's there more from her association from the central characters than any sympathy for her as a character. That aside, Dumbledore does get some good moments and some decent cod philosophy and the trio of central characters are more likable as well as Hagrid getting his back story.

The reveal of the villain is a great twist and nicely handled and ties into the history of Hogwarts, which starts to feel more unique this time around. The school and history start to get fleshed out more, less reliant on recycled ideas this time around and that creates a richer world. The decent set pieces help too - the scene with Aragog and family for example - standing out nicely against a mystery plot that bubbles along.

In all, a decent enough read. I'm still hard pressed to see why these books captured the imaginations of kids and adults quite as much as they have, but this book with its richer language, does go a step towards explaining it.

As mentioned, I finished reading the first Harry Potter book - Harry Potter and the Philosohthatsabigwordletscallitsourcerersinstead Stone a couple of days back.

Presumably I found it enjoyable enough, as I've now started on the second. So, thoughts.

In all honesty, it probably fitted my expectations, which weren't that high for the first book - I was expecting a kid friendly, entertaining book and got it. What I don't get is why the book set the world alight. I mean, it's certainly okay, but it's not startling to the level that I could get uber excited about it.

The Roald Dahlisms started to fade after the first chapter or so, but there was still plenty that smacked of his style of prose, but Harry Potter himself certainly isn't a Roald Dahl type hero. Compare Harry to James or Charlie - surrounded by monstrous characters but they wouldn't wish harm on them. In fact, Charlie was the kind of lad who expressed concern even for the monstrous brats he was having adventures with. Not so Harry Potter, who seems to spend most of the book wishing harm on people - be it Malfoy, Snape or Dudley, he always seems to be looking for a fight. While Charlie might have seemed too saintly, Harry comes across as rather aggressive and with a mean streak - literally his first line on being told he'll be able to do magic is not to express the desire to do something wonderful, but to curse his cousin.

Harry in the movie was a much more sympathetic character than he came across in the book for me. In the movies he comes across as shy and self doubting. In this first book, more obnoxious and jock-like than anything, good at sport, quick with a smart-ass remark, ready to pick fights, nursing grudges. It's funny because his in-book personality comes across slightly at odds with how twee and sickly sweet a lot of the rest of the book is. It's all very jolly hockeysticks, Enid Blyton (and at best a wannabe Tom Brown's Schooldays) in a way that's too sympathetic to be properly spoofing the public school genre. And I'd have given my right arm for there to be a decent Flashman type character instead of just Malfoy, who's fairly obnoxious, but hardly enough to justify the worst enemy *fistshakes* attitude from the central character. He's just a git and a fairly limp one at that.

Of course, the plot's fairly slight and it's mostly just a set up novel to introduce readers to the fantasy world of the character and in that it succeeds well. There's not really a whole lot that's original in the setting though - it seems more a lumping of cliches together, be they magical or public-school based, along with a generic big bad looming over everything. It all seemed rather derivative, but at least Rowling stole remixed other works and mythology and mixed it together in a way that wasn't entirely lifted from other books. but there's just a few too many moment where it was "oh, that scene's like..." I felt the book lacked the original concept that would really make it something truly new, though.

And that's a little where the book falls down - it's brief for the benefit of children, but rather relies on the readers knowing about dragons and ghosts and what mystical castles look like without much descriptive prose. I rather like a wordy description to aid the imagination myself, but so I would have rather liked a better idea of what something like Diagon Alley looked like, but on the other hand, encouraging a healthy imagination is to be encouraged too.

It's interesting to see how the book compares to the movies, though. It's clear certain casting was inspired, other roles an improvement on how they're written in the book (despite Rowling's claim that she "always had Maggie Smith in mind" for McGonagall, that doesn't tie in with the physical description of her in the book at all, but the movie version is an improvement) and it's clearly that Michael Gambon's boisterous take on Dumbledore is a lot closer to how I read him in this book that Richard Harris' subdued version.

I'm still bemused by the decision to rename the book in the US though. The Philosopher's Stone is an actual alchemic concept, the US title's just generic.

Anyway, a harmless enough read, but I'm hoping for more from later books in the series. At the moment I'm hard pressed to see what the fuss is about.

My comic store wasn't open when I went past this morning on the way out for the day, which means... three? weeks without any new comics. This is an annoyance as I intended to catch up this weekend.

I may have to resort to torrenting some of my pull list, because I don't really want to be a month behind. (Of course, I'll buy the titles when I get to the store anyway, so I fail as a filthy pirate.)

Also, going out was a bad move. I should have just stayed in bed. I feel awful again now.

However, I have now successfully infected my family, friends and random strangers with "swine flu", so I get to appreciate the joy of sharing.

Oh, and I feel unclean. I bought a Harry Potter book. I may even attempt reading it.

EDIT: While I'm on the subject, Maxim have apparently done a Girls of Harry Potter spread, which makes me facepalm so hard. But I can't really totally hate them, because somehow they sidestep my extreme distaste and take the sting out of it by including Dame Maggie Smith on the list.