Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is, on the whole a very good book. There are a few things that could, perhaps, have been done even better, but it's probably the best book in the series so far, save maybe Prisoner of Azkhaban.
...However, there's a certain group of people who are so upset about Harry and Hermione not getting together that...
...But perhaps I should start by quoting the Watley Review, my favourite parodic news source. In July, they wrote a hilarious bit of satire:
A disgruntled Harry Potter fan has released a "corrected" version of J.K Rowling's latest installment in the series, The Half-Blood Prince, prompting a storm of curiosity and support from many fans who disliked the direction of the story in the book. It has also, not surprisingly, prompted a storm of legal activity from Rowling's publishers.
"Whenever an author puts a work out into the universe, it is no longer their exclusive property anymore," said Mary Sue Pembroke, who is credited as the author of the modified book. "Harry Potter belongs to all of us, not just Rowling. She took some liberties with the story in this latest book that really weren't faithful to the logic of the narrative. My version is, I think it fair to say, much more faithful to the true Harry Potter mythos."
Rowling's book sold a record 9 million copies in Britain and the United States in the first 24 hours after its release. Despite the book's remarkable popularity, however, many fans were disappointed when the narrative did not follow their favorite predictions, in particular regarding romantic relationships between key characters.
"Rowling seems to think the relationships she's described in Half-Blood Prince were clearly telegraphed in previous books," sniffed Pembroke. "All I can say is, if that's what she thinks, she clearly doesn't understand Harry Potter like I do."
...Unfortunately, of late satire seems to have an unfortunate habit of turning true. - This is, by the way, the second version - the first version was even closer to the original, directly quoting large parts of the book, with only very slight changes to make Hermione Harry's love interest, and to make her, well, perfection itself.
...I begin to grow depressed. I shall merely leave off with a few links.
Angua9's analysis of this faction
Fandom_Wank's report on the first great rewrite of HBP
I've opened comments for the moment. I'll close them in a few days.
Edit by Reinder: Unfortunately, comments are still unavailable, and will be until I've done either a Movable Type upgrade and a bit of coordinatin' with Xepher, who is in charge of hosting this blog. Use my forum instead, if you want to comment.
