JK Rowling announces new novel

[DiapDealer]

Ah, but with Amazon's "pre-order price guarantee" you don't have to wait! Pre-order now and if the price drops before release date, you'll pay the lower price.

That's all well and good, except if the price never drops and you never had any intention of buying at $19. In which case, you'll need to remember to cancel. I choose waiting.

[Yapyap]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

And also... I'm not seeing the Kindle version up for pre-order anyway?

Hmm. I see it here (Amazon link) when I'm logged in with a US address. It doesn't appear to be available for at least some European countries yet (although a British friend says it's up for £11.99 on Amazon UK).

[elemenoP]

I'm seeing it now, don't know what the glitch was earlier. Sorry about that, carry on!

eP

[TimW]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

That's all well and good, except if the price never drops and you never had any intention of buying at $19. In which case, you'll need to remember to cancel. I choose waiting.

$35.00 is the list price on print. At wholesale, $17.50 should be breakeven. If Amazon has pricing control, I do not believe that one will be offered at $9.99.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by HistoryWes

As for Rowling, I think most people who denigrate her writing do so because they think it makes them sound sophisticated somehow. (Railing against something so popular always makes you cool, right?) Nobody who knows writing and has read hers, believes that she is less than a competent writer. Some have criticized her because her ideas are synthesized from existing legends and mythology rather than original. Speaking as one who has tried, it is difficult to take so many disparate legends and weave them into one cohesive sophisticated story-- which Harry Potter is.

Her entertainment-level storytelling is excellent. Her writing is competent, and much improved by a good editor--which she had in the first few books, and it became obvious that the later ones got a lot less attention.

The contradictions in her storyline should've been caught in edit. The concept that Parseltongue can be copied by listening to it & repeating the sounds contradicts the notion that it's a super-spooky magical language. The pacing in the final novel was atrocious... there was a war going on, and Our Heroes were staggering around in the woods, away from all the action. The whole supposed key theme of the series--"we are defined by our CHOICES!!!"--is contradicted by Snape's life, wherein the message is closer to "one bad choice as a teenager will ruin your whole life, even if you spend the next couple of decades trying to fix it. Unless, of course, your name is Malfoy." And that's before we get into all the nitpicky details.

The Harry Potter books are meant for a fairly noncritical YA audience; her worldbuilding falls apart when subject to in-depth review, and a lot of her underlying themes are contradicted by her overt plot events. They are wonderful stories, but they aren't examples of Fine Literature That Will Endure Through The Ages.

[HistoryWes]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Her entertainment-level storytelling is excellent. Her writing is competent, and much improved by a good editor--which she had in the first few books, and it became obvious that the later ones got a lot less attention.

The contradictions in her storyline should've been caught in edit. The concept that Parseltongue can be copied by listening to it & repeating the sounds contradicts the notion that it's a super-spooky magical language. The pacing in the final novel was atrocious... there was a war going on, and Our Heroes were staggering around in the woods, away from all the action. The whole supposed key theme of the series--"we are defined by our CHOICES!!!"--is contradicted by Snape's life, wherein the message is closer to "one bad choice as a teenager will ruin your whole life, even if you spend the next couple of decades trying to fix it. Unless, of course, your name is Malfoy." And that's before we get into all the nitpicky details.

The Harry Potter books are meant for a fairly noncritical YA audience; her worldbuilding falls apart when subject to in-depth review, and a lot of her underlying themes are contradicted by her overt plot events. They are wonderful stories, but they aren't examples of Fine Literature That Will Endure Through The Ages.

I would agree with that, especially the editing on the last book. I think there is a lot of really fun stuff out there that may never be considered literature, but that doesn't mean it's worthless. On the other hand I think we may be surprised out how long-lasting some of our "pop" literature becomes.

[sbroome]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

It seems like it is in fashion to dis things that are popular. the Harry Potter series, nay franchise, probably the most popular and best selling books written in most people here's lifetime... and also exteemly popular and top money making movies.

I'm not saying everyone did or had to like it... but give some respect where it is due. The popularity was no fluke, and I for one am sure I will be getting Rowling's new book.

BOb

Stating personal opinion has nothing to do with talking about whether or not other people liked it. In fact that's the worst habit I see when people are discussing something online.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

...

The pacing in the final novel was atrocious... there was a war going on, and Our Heroes were staggering around in the woods, away from all the action. ...

I take it you didn't care much for The Return of the King either (or was it The Two Towers)?

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by John F

I take it you didn't care much for The Return of the King either (or was it The Two Towers)?

Heh. I read those all in a blur, so I don't remember much what happened in one rather than the other.

Two Towers was the middle book; it was allowed to be "here's our protagonists stumbling around in the woods trying to figure out where the action is." The final book of seven shouldn't be "what the hell are we doing now?"

Also, in the LotR series, we *saw* action. Not all of it, but we had protagonists in the war and saw them fighting.

(Eowyn says, "Prepare to die, for I am no living man!" ... followed by Legolas saying "Ha! I am an Elf; no living Man!" Then Gimli says "Trying to get all the action, arrow-boy? I am no living Man!" And Merry pipes up with, "I, too, am no living Man...but you folks are welcome to him." And the King of the Dead says, "I am also no living Man! Damn, did you pick the wrong army to fight today!")

The 7th HP book would've been much stronger if she'd cut out a handful of the Camping Chapters and replaced them with whatever was going on at Hogwarts, letting us see Neville and Luna and Ginny leading the underground resistance. Or showing us Fred & George being ninja-spies infiltrating Death Eater supporters and stealing resources or just scrambling activities. Or *anything* that worked as actual build-up to the final battle, rather than acting like a teen drama TV show for twenty chapters followed by massive death & destruction.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Heh. I read those all in a blur, so I don't remember much what happened in one rather than the other.

Two Towers was the middle book; it was allowed to be "here's our protagonists stumbling around in the woods trying to figure out where the action is." The final book of seven shouldn't be "what the hell are we doing now?"

Also, in the LotR series, we *saw* action. Not all of it, but we had protagonists in the war and saw them fighting.

(Eowyn says, "Prepare to die, for I am no living man!" ... followed by Legolas saying "Ha! I am an Elf; no living Man!" Then Gimli says "Trying to get all the action, arrow-boy? I am no living Man!" And Merry pipes up with, "I, too, am no living Man...but you folks are welcome to him." And the King of the Dead says, "I am also no living Man! Damn, did you pick the wrong army to fight today!")

The 7th HP book would've been much stronger if she'd cut out a handful of the Camping Chapters and replaced them with whatever was going on at Hogwarts, letting us see Neville and Luna and Ginny leading the underground resistance. Or showing us Fred & George being ninja-spies infiltrating Death Eater supporters and stealing resources or just scrambling activities. Or *anything* that worked as actual build-up to the final battle, rather than acting like a teen drama TV show for twenty chapters followed by massive death & destruction.

I can't offer an argument in regards to HP. I read them, I enjoyed them, but I can't remember much from any of them. All I can seem to recall is that Frodo and Sam seem to do a lot more stumbling around then Harry and his bros.

[Sydney's Mom]

I loved the HP books, and practically tackled the UPS man walking up my driveway with the last book. But $19 for an ebook?

I think I will wait for the movie.

[sun surfer]

A new book by JK Rowling? Can't wait! Reading the beginning and end of this thread, a few comments:

-I will buy it at whatever halfway reasonable price point. Of course I won't buy it at a crazy price like say $100 U.S., but $20 U.S. sounds reasonable enough to me for something new and probably very hotly anticipated by many. In fact, I'll probably even pre-order it and I rarely do so; the last book I ever pre-ordered was...lol, HP7. I have no idea if I'll like it but I enjoyed HP so much that I'm willing and excited to give her first non-HP book a chance.

-The "walking around in the woods" part of HP7 that some of you don't like was my favourite part of the book and one of my favourite parts of the last few books, and the resulting film (HP7.1) was one of my favourite of the entire cannon.

-I put off reading HP for years despite some of my less-bibliophilic friends loving them and encouraging me to. Finally I gave in around the fifth book's release time and tried it...and then devoured them. They may not be the "best-written" compared to say, Tolstoy, but not much is, and they weren't trying to be. In fact, it's obvious from the first two that the series was originally intended to be much more juvenile and shorter than it turned out. But the series and writing has a magic to it that is enchanting, to me at least, and to many, many others.

[sun surfer]

Also, not sure if this has been posted yet since I haven't read the entire thread, but has anyone noticed its ranks on Amazon?

#17 Paid (i.e. not free) in the entire Kindle store
#4 Contemporary Fiction in the Kindle store
#15 in Literature including both the Kindle store and pbooks

Also, the hardcover is #11 is Literature including both the Kindle store and pbooks. After being available to pre-order one day apparently.

Wow!

[Gorgonseyes]

No way the price will be anything over $12! Even that is insane for an ebook...

Did she run out of money of something?

[ProfCrash]

Pottermore cost a lot to set up.

I will wait and see what the response is. This is not my normal read and I hold grudges when I am really annoyed with someone. Her e-book silliness still irks me. (shrugs)

And book 7 was not a good ending to the series. We spend 6 years at Hogwarts and barely hear mention of Hogwarts until Harry and his friends return. The pacing was bad although I understood the premise. Harry and comp had to figure out the horcruxes and had little help. I really wanted to know what was happening at Hogwarts.

In the end, Snape redeems himself. He made a huge mistake joining the Death Eaters but failed to realize it until the one person he loved was killed because of his actions. I see that as a pretty large mistake. Especially when you contrast that to a barely mentioned character, Regulas Black, who became a Death Eater, realized how evil Voldemort was, and tried to do something to hurt Voldemort know that it would lead to his death.