Byzantine was nice enough to pre-order and get the last installment of the Harry Potter series for me this weekend. I don’t know if he realized that this would mean I would not be doing any type of work or anything useful at all until the book was finished, but he probably should have.

I will avoid any major spoilers (for the rest of the series as well as Book 7) and just give some overall impressions, but will Spoiler Tag this anyway since almost anything you could say about Harry Potter could turn out to be a spoiler for somebody.

In a sense, it would be difficult to mess up the final Harry Potter book. In my opinion Rowling kept up the momentum and the very high quality throughout the series, and since we know she had most of the plot planned out from the beginning, she’d have to abruptly become a much worse writer for anything to go very wrong in this last book.

The books have gradually gotten darker and have dealt with more and more serious themes, which culminated in the extremely powerful final scenes of book 6 (The Half-Blood Prince). In spite of the later books’ imposing size, they’ve always been quite accommodating to child-level readers without being dumbed-down in any way (assuming the children were old enough to handle the various scary and violent scenes). In spite of this, Half-Blood Prince really made me take Rowling seriously as someone who had something important to say to adults as well as to children–and should give Christian critics of the books something to think about too, since the book’s themes resonate strongly with major aspects of Christian belief.

The accessibility to both children and adults, and the apparent use of Christian themes without being explicitly Christian, are both reminiscent of the works of Tolkien. I believe Rowling has been compared to Tolkien a few times, and in Book 7 I can see the comparison most strongly. First, Rowling’s extensive knowledge of history and classical mythology, as well as that of Britain and other world regions, shines through all the books and should provide an interesting education for most adult readers as well as kids. She’s not the scholar that Tolkien was, but she does use these elements in interesting and fun ways that are integral to the story.

In Book 7 a debt to Tolkien is seen most clearly, in the nature of the quest taken on by the major characters, in how it’s conducted, and most of all in the apparent hopelessness of the cause. Even various small details seem like deliberate homages to Tolkien. The Fellowship of the Deathly Hallows isn’t quite as noble as that of the Ring, but themes of temptation, of loyalty, and of choosing the right way to do things over the attractive or expedient way are prominent in both books.

I wouldn’t put the Harry Potter series on the same level as Middle-Earth, but I don’t think the comparison between the two is in any way insulting to Tolkien.

One of the strengths of the book is the convincing way in which we see Harry and other characters grow up. In all the previous books Harry and his friends were adolescents, prey to the passions and pitfalls of adolescence. In this book we see them come to terms with their pasts and their shortcomings, and master themselves while they seek to master their enemies. The whole romance element plays a small but significant part in the book. This could easily have been an annoying distraction, but instead is an organic part of everything else that is happening within and around the characters.

I think that my main criticism of this book is that it doesn’t top Book 6. I think that Half-Blood Prince may be the only one of the books I’ve only read once (maybe twice), not because I don’t like it but because reading it only once just seemed satisfying. The messages of the book were so clear and so significant to me that they stick with me, I don’t need to re-read the book to remember them.

Book 7, while providing a perfectly good conclusion to the series, seems a step down from the soaring conclusion of 6. For the most part I’ve welcomed the increasing seriousness of the series, but this book seems to have eliminated almost all of the fun, goofy, warm, homelike elements, and nothing much seems to take their place. As a result, the pacing seems slow, nothing seems to be happening for long periods of time, and when something does happen it doesn’t always hit quite the right note. Some elements of the conclusion weren’t satisfying to me (some things seem out of character, some things seem tacked on or improvised rather than expanding on the big themes of Book 6). This book focused more on just a few characters, and I miss the feeling of non-stop action provided by an endless parade of colorful characters and amusing subplots.

But it’s really hard to find fault. These books are going to be read by children and adults for a long, long time, and I’m pretty sure are going to be a good influence on all or most who read them–which can’t be said for many books being published these days. A friend of mine once said about the Anne of Green Gables books that “they made her want to be a better person,” which I’d say is a pretty good test of literature, and the Harry Potter books meet that test. Not only that, but they also provide assurance that whether you’re as smart as Hermione, as brave as Harry, or as apparently hopeless as Neville; if you keep the faith, who you are is exactly who will be needed when push comes to shove.

Now, wonder if Byz can be imposed on further to take me to Order of the Phoenix this weekend?