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Title: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Author: J.K. Rowling
ISBN: 1551925702
Format: Hardcover - 766 pages
Rating: Overall Concept - 8/10
Execution - 7/10

This is the fifth book in the infamous Harry Potter series which has captured the psyche of the North American market by absolute storm.

The first time I was made aware of Harry Potter was either the large number of books on book store shelves or the many readers on my commuter train. At first I was adamant not to read any of the series, mostly since I believe anything that the general public goes gangbusters on can't be all that good, and because I sometimes like swimming against the current.

But a friend of mine loaned me a pirated copy of the first movie and my wife and I watched it on a lark. Needless to say, I was impressed enough in the movie to read the first four books in rapid succession and have preordered this the most current book in the series.

My first comment about the series is that it is well written and that it should not be seen as a 'children's' series, as adults can get as much enjoyment of the series as children do (not to mention some of the weighty concepts the books touch on/deal with). Secondly, it seems that as the protagonist of the series ages, so to does the age of the reader. It is as if Ms. Rowling is writting for an audience that is progressively getting older.

Now as for this book, I must say that it doesn't particularly stand out in any particular way but it is still an excellent read.

I was very impressed with the way that Ms. Rowling made Harry into a well rounded teenager (i.e. he is very angst ridden and comes to realize that his parents are fallible, something we all have to face and never is an easy thing to accept).

It is also rather interesting to note that despite the fact that Harry is a very powerful wizard, he can be rather dense when it comes to the potential actions of the enemy. I am slightly afraid that Ms. Rowling overplayed this as it becomes quite transparent to the reader what Voldemort is doing but Harry just can't see it until it is far too late. But then again, Ms. Rowling may have just been expressing her opinion of how teens can be engrossed in the wrong things and not see those things that are standing right in front of them (which isn't a skill exclusive to teens).

With the grand revelation of this book I am quite curious to see how she wraps up this series in the next two, which are, according to the author, the last two in the series. Also part of me wonders if the last book will end up being 1200+ pages in order to fulfill this.

For anyone who loves the stories of C.S. Lewis, Madeline L'Engle, Roald Dahl or L. Frank Baum I greatly suggest they augment that library with the books of J.K. Rowling.


Title: Millenium Rising
Author: Jane Jensen
ISBN: 0345430344
Format: Hardcover - 430 pages
Rating: Overall Concept - 8/10
Execution - 6/10

My first introduction to the writings of Jane Jensen were as the Gabriel Knight computer games (Sins of the Fathers, The Beast Within and Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned) which both my wife and I are quite fond of and are well written and paced games.

Due to my interest in these games and their author, by surfing the internet to see if a 4th game was forthcoming, I came across the notion that she had written stand alone books of which this is one.

The overall premise of this book is that several world religious leaders all attend a 'prophetic' event in Central America and each goes on their way to change the world. Shortly after their pronouncements from "God" (whichever incarnation they individually saw) the events of the Apocalypse as written in Revelations begin to occur. The two protagonists of the book are a Catholic Priest from the Vatican and a reporter for the New York Times. And the book follows their investigation of the 'events and their meanings'.

This book has a very good overall concept however the manner in which it concludes is rather wanting. The biggest issue being that the author seems to be setting the audience up on a 'journey of discovery' but about half way through the journey she seems to abandon it and continues to just conclude the tale. I am uncertain as to whether this is due to the fact that a) the author didn't feel she could effectively conclude the discovery, b) that she was afraid to allienate a portion of her audience or c) if the editor didn't want to have bad press/sales because of the leanings of the author (she was brought up the daughter of a fundamentalist christian minister).

Also I happened to be reading this book during a very difficult time, as my father had recently passed away and I was having a crisis of faith (perhaps not the best time to read a book of the Apocalypse).

I would recommend this book to those that are fans of the genre or of Jane Jensen, but I would throw in a caveat of not to expect too much.


Title: The Rod of Seven Parts
Author: Douglas Niles
ISBN: 0786904798
Format: Hardcover - 348 pages
Rating: Overall Concept - 7/10
Execution - 5/10

This is one of the LARGE number of books in the Forgotten Realms setting created by TSR Games and being continued by Wizards of the Coast.

The premise of this novel is that there is a powerful magic item (the Rod of Seven Parts) that a piece of falls into the hands of the protaganist of the story. The rest of the story is the character slowly learning what it is they have, collecting the rest of the pieces and having a climatic battle against a creature of pure malice and evil at the end.

All in all this is a typical book of its genre (modern pulp Fantasy) with my only complaint being that at the beginning of the book way too many of the introduced characters die, and for no apparent reason (which goes against the typical concept of Fantasy deaths being either a result of deserved justice or in an act of selfless heroism).

I would only suggest this book to be read as a rainy Sunday afternoon diversion. I read it myself as a prelude to a DnD campaign that I will be running that is based on the same premise, and that is probably the only reason I finished it (that I and don't like to leave books unfinished).