Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling)

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

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ISBN 0-7475-3274-5

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

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ISBN 0-7475-3848-4

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

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ISBN 0-7475-4629-0

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

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ISBN 0-7475-5099-9

Boxed set of these four titles

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ISBN 0-7475-5701-2

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is a great story, in the 'ripping yarn' tradition. It is known as HP & the Sorcerer's Stone in America, presumably because, poor things, they are too ill-educated to have heard the phrase Philosophers' Stone before, or to know that it has a precise meaning.

The main characters are a little too passive to be genuinely satisfying to an adult, but one supposes that the (intended) young audience often feels powerless at home or at school, and probably identifies with them. To me, Harry and his friends just seemed ... ineffectual - though nowhere near as pathetic as the mopey clod who casts his pall throughout Stephen Donaldson's tedious Thomas Covenant melodramas. Nor is there any of the grovelling and vaguely homosexual pawing we see from Samwise Lay-Your-Head-In-My-Lap-Master Gamgee in Tolkein's Lord of the Rings. No; it's all good, wholesome fun in here. I guess the cynical adult in me also finds his credibility stretched by that too: Even at the tender age of 12 or so, I'm rather inclined to think Harry would exhibit some curiosity in the contents of Hermione's pants.

But enough of the characters. What of the story itself? In this regard, HP&PS is a roaring success: well-paced and sustained by solid plotting. Although comparisons with Lord of the Rings are inevitable - more on account of the two books being made into big-budget movies and released at much the same time than for any other reason - the stories are nothing alike. HP is certainly not derivative. If it has any antecedent at all, it more likely to be found in Ursula Le Guin's Wizard of Earthsea than in any of Tolkein's fantasy. The first of the Thomas Covenant stories, conversely, was a direct steal. But whereas Stephen Donaldson went on to invest the subsequent TC books with fresh ideas, not that they were any better for it, Rowling does not. The HP sequels are tedious rehashings of the first. Volumes 2 and 3 don't read too badly, however, because they are short and sprightly, but volume 4, The Goblet of Fire, is further compromised by having its 200-page plot dragged out to 400-odd pages. Frankly, I found it tedious.

I've seen J.K. Rowling described as a genius – specifically as "the genius behind Harry Potter." Well, the label genius is arrant nonsense. Her characters are shallow. The work has none of the imagination, depth, and grand vision of Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, though by the time the last three books are published it will be much longer; nor has it the sincerity, characterisation and seemingly effortless literacy of Le Guin's Wizard of Earthsea. So let's not get carried away: she's written a good children's novel, which adults can enjoy as well.

Recommendation: HP and the Philosopher's Stone is highly recommended. After that, you'll need to make your own call on when you've had enough.

Look and Feel: My edition is the usual matt-finish paperback.

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