h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Here's a thread for us to discuss the book without spoiling it for the ones who haven't read it yet.

Yes Titania, thestrals. Those are what I want to paint.

For a book that nearly made 900 pages, it seems odd, but my main criticism would actually have made the volume longer. But I don't want to start off with criticism...

I loved the book, thought it was overall very well paced with quite a lot of new information. The tactic she used of ending book 4 with SO many questions, then starting book 5 with even more, and not answering any of them until the very end was quite effective in making me race through the book in a little more than a day. Of course, she didn't leave us quite so many questions at the end of this one, so I wonder whether that will work again with book 6...

My favorite scene: When Fred and George leave, instructing Peeves to "Give her hell," and he salutes them! I actually get choked up thinking about it. Peeves is now (in my mind) a fully flushed character. Before he was just a trouble maker who took orders only from the Baron. Now we learn he's actually capable of respect, and that (although I'm sure he foiled them often while they were in school) he recognizes the Weasleys as at least equals, if not his superiors.

There are a number of things that are unique in this book. It is the rare book that elicits an emotional responce from me. I got very angry at the toad woman. I rarely get that caught up in the story.

The local news had a spoiler telling us that someone dies in the book. I was distressed to hear that and panicked when Hermione got hurt in the Ministry. As I said, it is rare for a book to make me emotionally involved in the story.

I'd heard months ago about the death thing. I kinda felt that that particular spoiler had been put out there exactly for the purposes of making people jumpy. It makes characters like Mr. Weasley seem like they are in more danger if you know that at least one person WILL die.

The one thing I would have changed: I'd have spent more time with one-on-one conversations between Sirius and Harry. I *know* how much Harry cares about his godfather, but I never really get to *feel* it. They are living in the same house for so much of the book, you'd think there would be a few really touching moments.

H'mm... I wonder what I'm going to talk about.

Tonks. Tonks! I'll give her Tonks! Of all the new characters to only want their last name uttered, it would be the one called Tonks. Typical.

You do, of course, realise that as she's an auror, she's in a prime position to be the next Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. And you also realise what she would then be called, yes? Professor Tonks!

Please, dear God, let her choose Kingsley Shacklebolt instead...

Anyway, that aside, I thought the book was great. Harry's incessant shouting annoyed me, though, so I can sympathise with anyone who had problems with me in my earlier days on h2g2. *Shudders.*

Umbridge is fantastic, as is the way the teachers and students react to her. First class bad guy stuff, that.

None of the characters are really deep, though, are they. I mean, it's first class kids' reading, but the personalities don't develop.

The shouting (I agree, Prof) may be as close as Rowling can get to limning Harry's teener temper. Malfoy, father and son, neither one changes at all from book to book.

Yes, Umbridge was delightfully horrid. And I can't help thinking to myself, now that Hattie Jacques is long dead, what female character actor is going to fill Miss Umbridge's pink cardigan? Hem hem!

Lil, I agree on the depth of the characters, but I also think that many kids do not look for depth.

I really love the entire series and am eagerly awaiting the next installment.

Cons from the book... Harry's relationship with Cho seems trite and strained. Not from a character standpoint, but a writing standpoint. Now Rowling did set up a possible Harry and Ginny relationship which would be cool. Esp for those people who have read teh fanfic of HP.

Just read the last page.

Every time someone was injured I got all nervous that that one was to be the one to die. Especially McGonagall! I think I would have had to write to Rowling telling her off if she had done in McGonagall! I was actually relieved that it was Sirius. I agree with you, Irv. I never really felt the connection between Harry and Sirius, either. I didn't feel the love.

Oh, and I loved Peeves is this book, too. That salute was precious.

I have to confess I have skipped through it, and am reading it slowly now. I am really struggling though, because I read the others in 99/00 and I have simply forgotten too much. And I cannot tell if it seems miserable and fidgetty because that is how I am, or if it is because how the book itself is.

What I DO like is the threat to the school from the Ministry of Magic; it is very powerful that the Ministry are effectively bad guys - because of course that is exactly what happens in RL. I don't mean that all government is bad; what I mean is that no-one thinks that they are themselves the bad guys. The Nazis thought they were the good guys. (Am I making sense, here?)

I think that there is a lot here that could be really good - the warning of the Sorting Hat to co-operate is important. It is so easy to fight about how you do the job with people who want the same things as you do...

As I said, I am finding the tone of it very depressing, and the shouting and bad temper unpleasant to be around; but I don't know if that is me or if that is the book.

B

I have to confess I have skipped through it, and am reading it slowly now. I am really struggling though, because I read the others in 99/00 and I have simply forgotten too much. And I cannot tell if it seems miserable and fidgetty because that is how I am, or if it is because how the book itself is.

What I DO like is the threat to the school from the Ministry of Magic; it is very powerful that the Ministry are effectively bad guys - because of course that is exactly what happens in RL. I don't mean that all government is bad; what I mean is that no-one thinks that they are themselves the bad guys. The Nazis thought they were the good guys. (Am I making sense, here?)

I think that there is a lot here that could be really good - the warning of the Sorting Hat to co-operate is important. It is so easy to fight about *how* you do the job with people who want the same things as you do...

As I said, I am finding the tone of it very depressing, and the shouting and bad temper unpleasant to be around; but I don't know if that is me or if that is the book.

B

Oooops. Doublepost. Sorry.

Does anyone have any thoughts about visualizing the characters? This is the first Potter book I've read since the movies were released. My mental images were greatly influenced by the films, particularly Ron Weasley, Snape, McGonagall, Dumbledore and Draco Malfoy. Not so much with Harry and Hermione, though. I'm not sure why. Possibly because the film Harry doesn't act like an obnoxious teenager as yet.

I found most of the people in the film were exactly as I had imagined them from the books. The sets were much bigger than I expected though, and jarred slightly for that reason.

B

I've always liked the casting for the movies. It all seems to work.

As for the characters, I think some characters are dynamic and some are not. I think that Harry is dynamic. I think the shouting is part of that. It does get on my nerves, but he's shouting what I /wanted/ to shout when I was his age (only 7 years ago). What I still do sometimes want to shout. He wouldn't have done it before, though. And I think Ginny's matured. I keep wating for young Malfoy to show some signs of good ol' teenage rebellion. Or at least get more sophisticated in his taunting.

Tonks, when I saw the character, I couldn't help thinking of you. I wonder if Rowling is actually a researcher here? I mean really, it wouldn't be the first famous writer on the site. I think Professor Tonks would be genius, but I just can't stop rooting for Snape to teach that class. I don't think it will be anyone we know in book 7, though.

The fact that the ministry is fighting against the school is one of the best plots in the book. The government ignoring important happenings at the school or trying to interfere is all too real.

I have a friend who visualised all the characters as the actors, as she watched the film prior to reading the books. I don't have fault with any of the film characters except perhaps Hermione. I just don't see Hermione as a pretty girl and the actor portraying her is a pretty girl.

Irv, I'd love to see Snape as the DA teacher.

Tonks was brilliant as a bit character. I really liked her. Which also brings me to think about the family relationships that we have learned as a result of the family tree. Seeing that Black is related to Malfoy by marraige was interesting.

I got my copy back today and I am going to re-read it and see what I missed in my 8 hour reading of it.

There was a British actress called Bonnie Langford who would have been a dead ringer for Hermione. I thought it a shame that they didn't give the actress buck teeth, given that Hermione makes them smaller later on in the series.

It certainly IS a page-turner, I have just got to where they vist St Mungos to see Arthur Weasley, and I was expecting to have to work through it. Did anyone else find it slow-starting, or was that just me?

B

I kept visualizing Mimi from the Drew Carey Show as Umbridge, for some reason. All fluffy and girly and overdone. I don't know any British actresses who come close. And now that there's movies, I keep trying to think who will play the other characters. Sirius, I don't know yet, but I keep seeing Crispin Glover as Fudge...all button down and nervous and freaky weird, and definitely either Colin Farrell in there as Mad Eye Moody.

I agree that I didn't feel the relationship between Sirius and Harry. But I definitely figured out the whole Snape/Potter issue. That was a powerfully written scene.

And of course, I loved the whole "Grand High Inquisitor" element to Umbridge's character. I kept seeing Gui and Furnier, although the whole over-the-top element was very Spanish Inquisition.

Some American actors have demonstrated an ability to master a British accent, at least for a specific character, so perhaps we can look further afield for an Umbridge. An Australian, maybe. especially as the fat suit now exists.

But she is so exactly described as froglike!

I keep rooting for Snape in the long term. He is one of the most well-rounded and convincing characters in the series, and although I don't remember the actor's name I recollect that his was one of the best performances in the first movie.