Are you telling me not a single person on here enjoyied the Harry Potter series?!?!

It was decent at least!

I've read all the books and have read 6 and 7 twice

I can only respond in one fashion.........................

I think the books and the films are enjoyable, but i can't escape the feeling that the whole thing is a bit empty.

JK Rowling hasn't really invented anything. She's taken lots of generic ideas from a number of sources; wizards, cauldrons, dragons, magic maps etc. etc., and has jumbled them all together with some distinctly average storytelling. Where true geniuses like Tolkien, Banks, McLeod and the Star Wars authors have created deep, original, expansive universes, JK has just created a mish-mash of common ideas, and has made more money than all the geniuses put together.

I like Harry Potter myself but I'm also going to have to agree with Khargash.

And to be a good Author you have to also invent a new concept? The ideas of magic and dragons are all ideas based on the middle ages. They're not new concepts. They're very old concepts. The Star Wars universe mooched some of its basic ideas from Star Trek.

So I would hardly consider any of these ideas "original". Not to mention the fact that she did most definitely did *NOT* make more money than the makers of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings put together. Let alone with those other authors you mentioned.

So, I respect your opinion, but I don't see how its 'empty'

Well Powerking, I'll tell you my issue with Hairy Potters... they leave marks in the clay!

No, to be a genius you have to push boundaries.

And like i say i think she's clever, but i don't think she's a great author. Her storytelling is very average and formulaic, and she never experiments. Her ideas are unoriginal and entirely generic.

So no i don't think she's a great author. I think she's someone with a very marketable idea.

They're entertaining to say the least. But there are some things about them that really bother me. Mainly because the basic formula for the story is school + wizards. There's nothing extraordinary about the fantasy elements. Magic is more or less just there to be there, it doesn't really play a part other than three or four key spells they need just for that instance, and the involvement of non human characters is kept to a minimum.

Also JK Rowling sense of foreshadowing is about as subtle as sack of bricks.

But other than that I enjoyed reading them.

All very true, but she hasn't written many books yet and I bet she'll pick up a few tricks of the trade over time .

I look forward to the new books she writes in 20 years when she runs out of money and wants to get some quick cash.

She will never run out of money. The only reason Tolkien has sold more books is that The Hobbit has been on the shelf a whole lot longer. Rowling was really smart and her mail box money must be insane. I am sure she takes a percentage from every sale of everything with the word Harry Potter on it.

I thought the series was lovely, well written and I must disagree with anyone who faults her story telling. Her skill is such that she managed a readership of millions of children and even more adults. The movies I can take or leave although visually stunning and as much as I love movies (1600+ DVD collection) I do not think that a two hour venue is the right place for that story to be told. Not even in several instances. Keeping in mind that it is her first series I am sure she will get better.

So far as genre fiction her work is hands down better than 95% of the series fiction that has been created for Star Wars or Star Trek, but those are stories that were not born in print.

Long and the short of it is that it's all opinion any way. Like em or don't, it is your book shelf after all.

You know, for as big of a phenomenon as Harry Potter is, I've never read any of the books or seen any of the movies. I guess I can't comment on the quality of the texts themselves, but I have seen some of their effects.

While popularity certainly does not equate to quality, the series has generated a lot of excitement and is internationally well-known. Whether the books are particularly good from a literary perspective or not, I know they have encouraged a large number of kids to read, and that's probably a good thing. When I was in the 1st-5th grades, I read GOOSEBUMPS! books for about 80% of my book reports. The books were certainly not masterpieces, but they kept a 2nd grader interested long enough to complete his assignments. Even if the Harry Potter books do nothing more than that, they're still OK in my book.

I liked the whole series but the end of the last book was a bit crud i would of liked to know what happened after voldi got owned

Uhh... I have gone through first 3 books and first movie... Naaa... People say i have same looks with the actor of harry, and i hate him for that, i think he is ugly as hell... That guy actually pisses me off !! Pff, id smash his face through a brick wall!! Grrrr....!!!






Im sorry...