Oh yeah. If you don’t want any spoilers or anything about The Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter 5) I’d advise not reading this entry at the moment. But if you don’t mind, well, feel free.

First off, the book was very good, overall. Started off a little slow, but quickly picked up pace, especially at Grimmauld Place. The Order of the Phoenix was a secret group against Voldemort as many people guessed, and contains a lot of old and new characters, including Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Arthur & Molly Weasely, Severus Snape, Alastor Moody, as well as “divers others.”

There is indeed a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, the Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic. Her name is Umbridge… and you’ll quickly take umbrage to her, guaranteed. She does various nasty things to people, including a form of torture as detention, firing various teachers, eventually replacing Dumbledore as Headmaster. Among some of the nasty things, Harry, Fred and George all receive lifelong bans from playing Quidditch due to a fight with Malfoy after a match. Not exactly fair, is it?

Anyway, part of the main plot thread involves Harry gaining an even closer link to Voldemort’s mind than previously, when he starts to share Voldemort’s dreams and thoughts. These are eventually used to trick Harry into thinking that Voldemort has Sirius Black prisoner, (which of course is a trap) in the Department of Mysteries, and so Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny and a new character, Luna chase off to try to rescue him.

It turns out that Harry and Voldemort are linked by a prophecy kept in the Department, and that these prophecies can only be retrieved by those they speak about. Since Voldemort doesn’t really want the publicity, not to mention the risk of going himself, he tricks Harry into getting the prophecy, and sends Death Eaters to take it.

Long, funky fight scene erupts, with the Order entering about halfway through (including Sirius, who is alive and well) and then, in the midst of the fight, it happens.

Sirius Black dies.

He falls into an arch covered by a black veil, which the Ministry was using to study death.. and is gone. Harry flips out, Dumbldedore appears, Voldemort also drops by, and the two duel. In the end, Voldemort retreats, and Dumbledore takes Harry back to school and explains about his scar, and everything you’ve ever wanted to know… until the explanation is over, and you think, “hang on a minute, more questions now!”

Book ends with Harry going home, as per normal… except accompanied by the Order, who threaten to… hurt… the Dursleys if they are anything less than kind to Harry over the summer.

Book: 766 pages (250 odd thousand words)rnMethod: Nice, easy reading pacernTime: 4 and a half hours

Man, I feel weird. I read on the ‘net about a group of ‘speed readers’ who skimmed the text in 2 hours and twenty minutes.. and I just took my time, read nice and slow, heck, reread every couple of pages to make sure I was keeping up, and… I only took another two hours. I worked out, after, that if I was consciously trying I could probably have skimmed the entire book in somewhere between 1 and a half - 2 hours. That is really scary. I’m a freak, eh?

Now, for a bit of a rant about the book.

SHE KILLED SIRIUS!!!!! Sirius has been my favourite character since he was introduced! She killed my favourite character! NOT BLOODY FAIR!! I was fairly sure, going in, that it would be Hagrid… but, thinking rationally, I can understand it. For the hero to be a tragic figure, they have to lose their family, really. And Sirius is the nearest Harry has to a family member (Dursleys don’t count), especially during this book. And JK has confirmed that other deaths will follow… so possibly Remus Lupin and maybe some of the Weaselys too.

It’s really quite sad, actually. In several interviews, JK has named Sirius and Lupin as her two favourite characters in the series. And she just killed off one of her own personal favourite characters… as well as mine. And with all the character development she pushed into him in this book, then you feel it even more… especially with the torture dream, then the feeling you get when he seems to be fine and it was just a dream.. and it happens anyway. Talk about raising you up to thrown you down. :-(

Sigh. If it had been just a bit more developed, I might have even cried. Of course, the fact that there was a lot of ambient noise in the house, even at 11 o’clock after work, meant that the atmosphere wasn’t what it could have been. Only two books have ever made me properly cry… River God, by Wilbur Smith (When Tanus and Lostris die) and Bridge to Terebithia (don’t remember specifics.. just that it was awful). Order of the Phoenix came very close to being the third.. and when I reread it, I wouldn’t be surprised if it is the third. Since I’m planning to reread it on Monday, I suppose I can let you know then.

-Andiyar