Well, the movie’s coming out shortly (November 18th, but who’s counting? :-) so I felt I should catch up with Harry’s adventures before witnessing them on the big screen.

I’ve had mostly ambivalent feelings about J.K. Rowlings’ series. I read the first book and thought “That wasn’t bad, though I would have absolutely loved this book as child”. I didn’t read the second book, saw it in the theaters and was underwhelmed by the lack of anything really new in the story (other than the monsters of course, gotta have new monsters :-). I read the third novel with high expectations because a number of friends were raving about it and, again, was underwhelmed.

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So how did book number four, The Goblet of Fire, fare? Surprisingly well, IMO. It might have been my lowered expectations but I felt this book had a decent storyline, expanded the Potter world nicely (I liked the addition of the other wizard schools), and has Harry starting to grow up, but no mention of acne yet! There are the usual escapades to spice things up but the Tri-Wizard Tournament (main plotline) holds the story together well. The ending, though a bit over the top, should look great in the movie.

The reader Jim Dale’s performance is excellent. After a couple CDs, you can tell all the main characters apart just based on his accents. He doesn’t read too fast so children should have no trouble keeping up with him. The book’s long but you’ll enjoy a road trip with Jim reading Harry.

Other books by the same author: