Amen. Personally, I found the vast majority of it to be deeply engrossing and the ending to be as satisfying a conclusion as one could have hoped for. Maybe I could have done with a bit less of the aimless wandering near the beginning of the book, (okay, okay, we get the point --- they don't know what they're doing) but other than that, I found it to be a well-crafted story. I think it's a shame that "fans" are attacking it.
As nearly all of my internet exposure these days comes through knitting blogs (waits for you to finish laughing), I had totally missed that there was any criticism. I, too, read the book in one sitting. And while sometimes I wished that it wasn't a young-adult fantasy series, I thought it was a totally satisfying conclusion to said series. Seriously--the writing was enjoyable and fairly tight, inevitable conclusions concluded, and frankly I thought the level of sophistication of the characters was well above average in this one.
I've read a lot of interesting complaints. People disappointed with various characters' appearances and disappearances, places where the story dragged, comments that the book is hard to read aloud. Sometimes I've read interesting new perspectives on said complaints in response.
The complaints that bother me are the sweeping global condemnations, and the personal attacks on the writer. As far as I can tell there isn't a lot of indication that she's a spoiled, ego-centric, unchecked primadonna. As far as I know, she hasn't insulted her readers. She hasn't destroyed original versions of her story that people liked more. She hasn't even dragged out the series for an unpredictable number of books. She's pretty much followed the rules she set up for herself at the beginning of the series and churned out the books at a reasonable rate
( ... )
Ok, I admit that in declaring Rowling "dead to me," it was specifically after an unexpected death (because I am naive and hopeful), and if I ever have money again, I'd actually like to spend even more of it to have copies of the books with covers I really like. And I was perhaps reacting a little strongly when I said "lied" about various spoilers she leaked and didn't follow through on, but well. Emotional creature, that's me
( ... )
There could be a 'can't touch her work' idea going on among her editors but that's not necessarily her fault so much as a 'don't hurt the golden goose' idea.
But I can also see other reasons for her punctuation being so reprehensible to certain segments of her audience. They'd all be speculation, of course.
All I can really say is that she's seemed remarkably well-centered and friendly and flexible in my limited observations of her. And that factors into my various speculations about the meta-process of how the book got printed.
Ok, point. I'll grant that it may be more a stupid editor thing than horrible egotistical author thing (as my very limited knowledge of her doesn't particularly jive with her acting like Lucas), that fits nicely. But I will always, always claim that something should have been done about the punctuation.
HP7 is not the worst book ever. If you have any glimmering of that thought in your mind, whether you identify as a fan or not, please go take a cold shower and calm the fuck down. You're insane, and should seek medication.
I think perhaps those that claim it was "the worst book ever" really mean to say, "it is the most disappointing book that I, personally, have ever read/hoped for/cared about."
That said, I rather enjoyed it. I can understand people being disappointed that events didn't play out the way *they* would have written them, or character backstories being filled in in such a way as to negate a previous impression, but hey, if readers don't like it, isn't that what fanfic is for?
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As nearly all of my internet exposure these days comes through knitting blogs (waits for you to finish laughing), I had totally missed that there was any criticism. I, too, read the book in one sitting. And while sometimes I wished that it wasn't a young-adult fantasy series, I thought it was a totally satisfying conclusion to said series. Seriously--the writing was enjoyable and fairly tight, inevitable conclusions concluded, and frankly I thought the level of sophistication of the characters was well above average in this one.
In short: People are disappointed? Wtf?
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The complaints that bother me are the sweeping global condemnations, and the personal attacks on the writer. As far as I can tell there isn't a lot of indication that she's a spoiled, ego-centric, unchecked primadonna. As far as I know, she hasn't insulted her readers. She hasn't destroyed original versions of her story that people liked more. She hasn't even dragged out the series for an unpredictable number of books. She's pretty much followed the rules she set up for herself at the beginning of the series and churned out the books at a reasonable rate ( ... )
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But I can also see other reasons for her punctuation being so reprehensible to certain segments of her audience. They'd all be speculation, of course.
All I can really say is that she's seemed remarkably well-centered and friendly and flexible in my limited observations of her. And that factors into my various speculations about the meta-process of how the book got printed.
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I think perhaps those that claim it was "the worst book ever" really mean to say, "it is the most disappointing book that I, personally, have ever read/hoped for/cared about."
That said, I rather enjoyed it. I can understand people being disappointed that events didn't play out the way *they* would have written them, or character backstories being filled in in such a way as to negate a previous impression, but hey, if readers don't like it, isn't that what fanfic is for?
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