Alec Peche's Blog - Posts Tagged "harry-potter"
The last adult to read Harry Potter
Recently I listened to the first book of the Harry Potter series. I feel like I’m the last adult on earth to have not read a Harry Potter book, or watched a movie or otherwise have been touched by the series. I’ve read and loved all three of JK Rowling’s mystery writer (penname -Robert Galbraith’s) books. I like the detective she created Cormoran Strike as a character. He has many layers and oddities, but yet is still believable and the mysteries are good.
I also add that I don’t as a rule read fantasy, vampires, or young adult books. There are so many good mystery, thriller, and frankly romance books, that I haven’t run out of the genre yet. I purchased the Sorcerer’s Stone as an audiobook and sat back awaiting to be amazed by a master storyteller. After listening to the first line and the first page, I wasn’t gripped by the story. It’s wasn’t bad, just mildly entertaining for me. In the mystery genre there is great pressure to open with an amazing first sentence and page.
Perhaps an hour into the seven hour audiobook, Harry arrived at the Hogwarts School, and then I begin to appreciate the foundation of the story. An eleven year old boy attending a magic school that sounded like one of those stiff upper lip British preparatory schools. The material the author had to create a rich story and indeed a series that could carry on exploded into my imagination. The icing on the cake for me was the game of Quidditch. I so admired the literary talent that it took to create that game and know that the story needed the game. To think that they would play a different game than mere mortals, but to then make it similar enough that you could grasp the game was brilliant on the part of Rowling. I want to see the movie just to watch that game come to life. In fact I’ve already watched a film clip on You Tube.
In an age of Disney and other children’s roles wherein children are separated from their parents, then reunited with family toward the end of the story, this was a story less about the traditional family and more about coming of age with one friends while being mentored by a larger family of witches and warlocks. The story gives Harry and his immediate friends a moral code from the start. They don’t use the invisible coat and the broomstick for greed, rather in Harry’s case at the end of this first story, he now had a means to fairly fight his bully cousin - not to beat him with magic, but rather to contain the damage the kid had done in the past.
I’ve never used my blog to review a book and that is not what this post is about. Rather I am admiring JK Rowling’s imagination and writing skills as the force behind what has now become the Harry Potter Empire. I know she discussed on Twitter in recent days the naming of Harry Potter’s child, so I’m looking forward to reading the next installation to enjoy the journey as Harry transforms from an eleven year old to a father and what adventures he’ll have along the way.
I know I have seven or eight more books to read to get to the end of the series and I’m looking forward to examining how Rowling expands her characters with the next book and perhaps have a glimpse as to why she ended the series. In my current series Jill Quint, MD, Forensic Pathologist, one of the things I’m thinking about is when is it time to end a series. I have six books complete and another in my head, so maybe Rowling as the Master writer, will help me understand when it’s time for a series to end.
I also add that I don’t as a rule read fantasy, vampires, or young adult books. There are so many good mystery, thriller, and frankly romance books, that I haven’t run out of the genre yet. I purchased the Sorcerer’s Stone as an audiobook and sat back awaiting to be amazed by a master storyteller. After listening to the first line and the first page, I wasn’t gripped by the story. It’s wasn’t bad, just mildly entertaining for me. In the mystery genre there is great pressure to open with an amazing first sentence and page.
Perhaps an hour into the seven hour audiobook, Harry arrived at the Hogwarts School, and then I begin to appreciate the foundation of the story. An eleven year old boy attending a magic school that sounded like one of those stiff upper lip British preparatory schools. The material the author had to create a rich story and indeed a series that could carry on exploded into my imagination. The icing on the cake for me was the game of Quidditch. I so admired the literary talent that it took to create that game and know that the story needed the game. To think that they would play a different game than mere mortals, but to then make it similar enough that you could grasp the game was brilliant on the part of Rowling. I want to see the movie just to watch that game come to life. In fact I’ve already watched a film clip on You Tube.
In an age of Disney and other children’s roles wherein children are separated from their parents, then reunited with family toward the end of the story, this was a story less about the traditional family and more about coming of age with one friends while being mentored by a larger family of witches and warlocks. The story gives Harry and his immediate friends a moral code from the start. They don’t use the invisible coat and the broomstick for greed, rather in Harry’s case at the end of this first story, he now had a means to fairly fight his bully cousin - not to beat him with magic, but rather to contain the damage the kid had done in the past.
I’ve never used my blog to review a book and that is not what this post is about. Rather I am admiring JK Rowling’s imagination and writing skills as the force behind what has now become the Harry Potter Empire. I know she discussed on Twitter in recent days the naming of Harry Potter’s child, so I’m looking forward to reading the next installation to enjoy the journey as Harry transforms from an eleven year old to a father and what adventures he’ll have along the way.
I know I have seven or eight more books to read to get to the end of the series and I’m looking forward to examining how Rowling expands her characters with the next book and perhaps have a glimpse as to why she ended the series. In my current series Jill Quint, MD, Forensic Pathologist, one of the things I’m thinking about is when is it time to end a series. I have six books complete and another in my head, so maybe Rowling as the Master writer, will help me understand when it’s time for a series to end.
Art imitates life….or at least it does with book series characters…
I just finished the fourth Harry Potter book and I’m presently listening to the book #42 of the JD Robb In Death series - Brotherhood in Death and as a reader I’m very happy to see the revolving characters grow in each story. A good book series is like a friendship, as you know your friend for a longer period you know them better - they think and act as you expect them to. Predictability is not boring in a book series; rather it’s the hallmark of great writing. When you have fictional characters, how do you show more of each character’s personality in every story yet also keep the characters’ actions consistent and true. I think as both a reader and a writer, I look forward to learning how a master does that with a long running series.
In Harry Potter, Harry fought with his best friend Ron. Not fisticuffs, but rather it was a fight of emotions and that allowed the reader to learn more about Harry and Ron and in the end deepened their relationship. I haven’t finished book 42, but already Eve and Roarke fought over a sentimental piece of furniture from the first or second book in the series. As a reader I was at first offended by the fight as it seemed shallow and therefore out of character; but as the emotional fight continued, I understood it was entirely within character for these two to fight.
As I look at my own series and work on book seven - CASTLE KILLING, I find myself looking for ways to show more nuances of my repeating characters’ personalities. Certainly the four women that comprise the investigative team haven’t fought with each other like the teenagers of Harry Potter, or the married couple of the In Death series. Jill and Nathan have had a few minor clashes, but nothing explosive. I’m looking for ways in the storyline to show more of each character to the reader and so book seven will have a pivotal moment that exposes more of Angela, Jo, Marie, and Jill’s personality to the reader.
As a reader, I like book series. When I fail to finish a book, it’s because I don’t like the book’s characters or I don’t care what happens to them. This usually happens when I’m reading a new author for the first time. Whenever I write and look at my story’s progression, I ask myself, is there enough there for the reader to care about the women in my series? I hope so as it’s my duty as a writer to make my reader care about my characters.
In Harry Potter, Harry fought with his best friend Ron. Not fisticuffs, but rather it was a fight of emotions and that allowed the reader to learn more about Harry and Ron and in the end deepened their relationship. I haven’t finished book 42, but already Eve and Roarke fought over a sentimental piece of furniture from the first or second book in the series. As a reader I was at first offended by the fight as it seemed shallow and therefore out of character; but as the emotional fight continued, I understood it was entirely within character for these two to fight.
As I look at my own series and work on book seven - CASTLE KILLING, I find myself looking for ways to show more nuances of my repeating characters’ personalities. Certainly the four women that comprise the investigative team haven’t fought with each other like the teenagers of Harry Potter, or the married couple of the In Death series. Jill and Nathan have had a few minor clashes, but nothing explosive. I’m looking for ways in the storyline to show more of each character to the reader and so book seven will have a pivotal moment that exposes more of Angela, Jo, Marie, and Jill’s personality to the reader.
As a reader, I like book series. When I fail to finish a book, it’s because I don’t like the book’s characters or I don’t care what happens to them. This usually happens when I’m reading a new author for the first time. Whenever I write and look at my story’s progression, I ask myself, is there enough there for the reader to care about the women in my series? I hope so as it’s my duty as a writer to make my reader care about my characters.
