OotP Re-Read: Sunday Evening, Here

OK, there seemed to be some interest in a collaborative re-read/discussion of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, so I'm going to kick this off on Sunday evening.

My plan is to post a discussion on a chapter a day basis - that way, hopefully, more people will be able to carve out time to read, and catching up with the reading won't be as hard as if we were reading the whole thing in a week.

Does this seem OK with people?

Unlike a 'fresh' read, we're not constrained by spoiler niceties and the like - I'm quite interested in seeing how much foreshadowing and stuff was actually going on, and it's apparent to me that, looking back from VII to VI to V, Harry's character seems way less out of whack than it did coming forward from IV.

That all said, I'm not looking forward to Cho's character assassination :-(

Grunge Elf Fiction

My Geekology of Series continues with the Tithe, Valiant and Ironside trilogy by Holly Black (blackholly), a YA series about modern day Faerie set in/around the state of New York.

I actually read these out of order, reading Valiant first, which turns convention on its head, somewhat, by having a troll as the main character's romantic interest. Val, the protagonist, ends up running away from home after she discovers her mother carrying on with her (Val's) boyfriend, when he's stood her up for... a concert, I think.

Anyway, Val ends up spending time with Lolli, Luis and Dave, three homeless teens roughly her age, who sleep in an abandoned subway station, and are keyed into Faerie through using Nevermore, a drug used by the Fey to make them resistant to the iron in modern day life, but that is addictive to humans, and has unpleasant side-effects.

On top of this, there's been killin's</Hagrid-voice> in the borough, and Val's path through the story leads to her solving the puzzle.

That got me hooked into the story as a whole, so I then read Tithe and Ironside, which actually deal with a different set of characters, although there's some overlap (and they all come together at the end).

As I write this, I find myself unusually hazy about the 1st and 3rd instalment, but they were decent reads. I liked the whole contemporary setting for Faerie, I liked the sinister side to the Fey - they view humans in much the same way we might view insects - always there, sometimes pretty, but completely indifferent to their presence, should it choose not to chime with our own particular wishes.

I also liked the whole run-down, seedy flavour to the settings - the kids sleeping in the abandoned subway station, the run-down seaside setting of the first novel. So, even though the details are frustratingly hazy (unlike other geekology posts, I've only read this lot once), I still reckon they're worth posting about.

Potions - Chapter 2: Detention

OK, this is the sequel fic to Potions, a 6th year AU fic which features Ron/Hermione and Harry/Parvati. Obviously, since it's a sequel, it's beneficial if you read the first instalment before proceeding...

To whet your appetite for the cut, Harry, Parvati, candlelight. Aw - what more could you want?

( Potions - Chapter 2: Detention )