Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Pre-order here

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is released on the 16/07/2005 and they are currenlty taking pre-orders. :grin:

or the 'Adult Version' here

and don't ask me the difference.. maybe Harry or Ronald gets it on with Hermione

the adult one did not have a little picture :P

Though I am going to buy the one that matches the rest of the set that I arleady own. The only difference I would think they have is the covers...

Old news, but something I'm keen on. I'm hoping it works better then the last one (which wasn't bad) but Harry is starting to near the end of his school life. I wonder if she plans to continue afterwards?

Quote from Hitokiri Kensuke:
I wonder if she plans to continue afterwards?

Nope. She has said the seven books will be all for HP. After it finishes she wants to write about something else.

I hope this one is a step back towards the brilliance that was The Goblet of Fire... and I hope she forgets The Order of the Phoenix ever happened... :(

Goblet of fire was better then the Order of Phoenix thats for sure.

This is only book 6, there will be one more after this. I am looking forward to this, cant wait to get it.

I put off Harry Potter for so long. It was too mainstream in my opinion to be anything really good. I mean, I read Michael Crichton, but I know as mainstream as he is, he's not all that great.
I think it's fairly safe to say that she's pretty good. I read the first five books within a week.

its kids books.... read something good
robert jordan
raymond e fiest
david gemmel
stephen donaldson
margaret weis and tracy hickman (particualarly death gate cycle)

these are great books that deserve movies unlike the hacks that are LOTR these books at least all have originality in the fantasy genre as opposed to rehashing old stuff and potter is just an over rated childrens book

phillip, i'm gonna say that you HAVEN'T read any of the harry potters.

oo good guess

read the first one. wasnt particularly impressed, thought much like david eddings it lacked imagination only to a far worse degree. Dont get me wrong its easy reading but you dont get anything out of it its an airport novel something you read when your bored out of your mind and havent got anything better to do.

wow. you mentioned robert jordan under something good. he's stolen almost all his ideas from other places, and poorly disguised it, AND the wheel of time series has more or less gone to shit since the 6th book or so. he's probably one of the most payed out fantasy authors of all time. which isn't to say i'm not still hanging out for him to finish the series, i lapped up the first 6 books, was bitterly disappointed by a few of the latter ones, but need him to finish the ****ing series. i need closure.

i *have* read some of the harry potters, and im force to agree with phillip there, i can't see what all the hype is about. they're just books. there are plenty of better books (books that i find more enjoyable), and there are plenty of worse books too i'm sure.

Quote from phillip:
its kids books.... read something good
robert jordan
raymond e fiest
david gemmel
stephen donaldson
margaret weis and tracy hickman (particualarly death gate cycle)

* Sara Douglass, Robin Hobb

Also, David Eddings is ****en awesome in the same way that Clive Cussler is ****en awesome - mindless predictable fun.

I agree with Paladin on the Robert Jordan issue, 6th book onwards got bad :(

& Raymond E. Feist is one of my favourite authors.

However, that doesn't mean that Harry Potter isn't good. The first is not a good indication of how good the series really is. Wait until you get to the third and fourth books and then you can pass judgement on the series as a whole.

Btw Phillip, Disney/Pixar movies are for (primarily aimed at) kids... does that mean that they're bad? They fall into the same category as the Harry Potter books.

I love the Harry Potter boks,

Another great author is Dan Brown - Digital Fortress ( AWESOME !! book) and im currently reading The da vinci code ( its also very very good)

Deception Point, I thought, was a bit of a letdown. Haven't read Angels and Demons yet though...

Matthew Reilly's Ice Station is very good as well. Haven't read Contest, Area 51, Scarecrow etc yet :(

If this book sucks as much as the last I'll be pissed off... I mean I could appreciate the fifth book but it just couldn't compare to its predecessors. I'm guessing the Adult Edition must be some unabridged version that has themes that aren't good for the kids.

I'm with Seqo on this one... Kids book doesn't mean bad book. Heck I don't even know if you can call it a 'kids' book. The appeal is so general that the term 'family' book would probably be more appropriate. For what it is, it has a lot of maturity and I don't think its fair at all to compare it to Robin Hobb or Raymond E. Feist. I mean for starters the intended audience is very different.

Ye after i read Da vinvi code, im going to get Angels and Demons, and Deception point. I heard that Angels and Demons was pretty good.

It's all relative anyway I mean if you dont like fantasy your not going to like Raymond E Feist at all and not appreciate him.

Personally I like the Harry Potter series

I am currently reading book 3 of wheel of time and find it extrememly hard to concentrate on the book. Not like.. say The Magician where I was lost in the story line each five times Ive read it.

Quote from leonami:
I'm with Seqo on this one... Kids book doesn't mean bad book. Heck I don't even know if you can call it a 'kids' book. The appeal is so general that the term 'family' book would probably be more appropriate. For what it is, it has a lot of maturity and I don't think its fair at all to compare it to Robin Hobb or Raymond E. Feist. I mean for starters the intended audience is very different.

so what you're saying is... its not a kids book, but it's written for kids.

Quote from phillip:
its kids books.... read something good
robert jordan
raymond e fiest
david gemmel
stephen donaldson
margaret weis and tracy hickman (particualarly death gate cycle)

these are great books that deserve movies unlike the hacks that are LOTR these books at least all have originality in the fantasy genre as opposed to rehashing old stuff and potter is just an over rated childrens book

you the man!!

whos the man!!

you the man!!

Quote from Harbinger:
so what you're saying is... its not a kids book, but it's written for kids.

or I could just be saying that its not a kids book, don't undervalue it just because you go and compare it to a more mature genre who mainly focuses on the more complex reader instead of the broader scope of people that Harry Potter is written (imo) for.

right, so it's written to target the lowest common denominator, people who previously thought books were for eating and lighting fires. on the one hand, it's a good thing that the books have got people jazzed about reading. it's just a crying shame that they're going to go on thinking that the harry potter series is the pinnacle of science fantasy/fiction/fantasy/books/life/the universe.

Also, Phillip... are you saying that LOTR wasn't original in the fantasy genre?

I hope not... considering Tolkien practically created the genre. Pretty much everything in his book was his creation or loosely based on folklore, everything after LOTR - in the fantasy genre - borrows from Tolkien. (Elves as one example...)

i think the adult version will be much the same as the 'adult' version of the last book. just a different cover. it's highly unlikly jk rowling will edit in a draft just for adults.

as for the book being for kids. well, as with each book, jk starts implimenting in more and more 'complex' themes and issues. they're not exactly world shattering, but she is expending her books past the simple junior fantasy books, for something even the adults can enjoy.

either way, my wireless keyboard ain't working, so i hope this button mashing on the on-screen keyboard was worth it:P :) :D

I think i've only enjoyed two books in my life.
The first one was called 'Salt'. I have no idea who wrote it.
The second im still reading, its the first part in the 3part Warcraft series :P

thats why they make movies :)

so you two clearly belong to the 'books are for eating and fires' camp?

no I read books .. but I prefer movies, whilst according to everybody the books are better,

If I had to pick between reading a book which takes me a while or sitting down for 2 hours and understanding more on a screen I know what I would pick ..

thats my preference anyhows.

Quote from paladin:
so you two clearly belong to the 'books are for eating and fires' camp?

Not so much, books are great for people that have the mind for them.
I can read books easily enough, but my mind wanders alot. For example, i will read one paragraph and during that period, ive thought about what im doing tomorrow, what i need to do to my car and where im going to level in WoW....so yeh..im easily distracted ;P

what are books...

Books are like hard copies of the internet.. there are lots that contain porn.. and if you look hard enough, you might find some that don't.

Books are PDF files in physical form.