Sinking into the first lush paragraph of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” has the deeply rewarding familiarity of settling into a luxurious bed after a very long day, and the sixth book in J.K. Rowling’s extraordinary series only gets better as it goes on.
The penultimate story of Harry Potter, boy wizard, begins with the uncomfortably frequent collisions of the Muggle and magic worlds.
The British prime minister is discomfited to learn from the minister of magic that collapsing bridges, misdirected hurricanes and other destructive phenomena are the result of evil, not chaos.
Headmaster Albus Dumbledore arrives at No. 4 Privet Drive to personally confront Harry’s malicious Muggle relatives and to escort Harry, now 16, on the first of many missions that elicit Harry’s increasing wizardry skills.
He is still boyish enough to evade approaching female admirers and fret over his friends’ reaction to the girl he finds infatuating. His impetuousness continues to earn detentions from Professor Snape, who finally seizes the Defender Against The Dark Arts job. And Harry still appalls Hermione’s sense of orthodoxy by yielding occasionally to temptation.
The riskiest lure is the secondhand Potions textbook heavily annotated by a preternaturally skilled previous owner who calls himself the Half-Blood Prince. The scribbled notes single-handedly propel Harry to teacher’s pet status with an unctuous new professor, and bring Harry again under Snape’s perceptive suspicions.
The question of the Half-
Blood Prince’s identity nibbles relentlessly as Hogwarts’ academics pale against attempted murders and subterfuge within the school halls. Dumbledore adheres relentlessly to his view that Snape is an ally, not a turncoat. He refuses to hear troubling evidence that Snape protégée Draco Malfoy seems to be aligning himself with He-
Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
Equally extraordinary is Dumbledore’s decision to tutor Harry personally in private lessons designed to illuminate the bleak thing that passes for Lord Voldemort’s soul.
In a series of voyages through harvested memories, Harry begins to sound the monster’s true depths.
Bringing Harry and the reader to the abyss floor is what makes “Harry and the Half-
Blood Prince” the most muscular and insightful book in the series. Rowling’s dispassionate summary of Tom Riddle/Lord Voldemort/You-Know-Who is an expert, compelling example of exposition that can fail to move only the most obtuse readers.
Expect neither conversation nor attention from readers who have reached page 568. The final sortie inexorably presses Harry and Dumbledore toward a helpless, disastrous confrontation that poses as many questions as it answers.
Fans will be torn between their impatience for the conclusion – more than a year away, Rowling has warned – and their reluctance to see the story end.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
Potter’s plots
If you’re playing Harry Potter catch-up, here are the previous books in the series:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (1998)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1999)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban (1999)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005)
