Deathly Hallows Book Discussion **LoTs Of Spoilers**

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by Alex

He does not write the books in the OpCenter, Power Play, or Net Force series. When the Net Force series first started they didn't even mention the real author on the cover, but I believe they've changed this in the years since with it still being the case that "Tom Clancy's..." is in huge letters and the author's name is nice and small. In those first books the only mention would be something in the acknowledgments like "invaluable contribution[s] to the manuscript by Joe Blow" when in fact the invaluable contribution was that Joe Blow wrote it.

So there are the now acknowledged series in which Clancy has just licensed his name but rumors that other recent books have been ghostwritten as well.

So he's not quite in the V.C. Andrews camp (at least not until he dies) but is an example of whoring out the name. Asimov did something similar in his late years but I think the appropriate authorial credit was given much more prominently.

Robert Ludlum is another. His estate has published about a dozen new books since he died in 2001, supposedly based on unfinished manuscripts but no authorial credit is given

Ahhh. Thanks. I knew Net Force wasn't by him (because I picked up on the Tom Clancy's..." but the others didn't even occur to me. I only follow the Jack Ryan series; couldn't get in to the other ones. And now I know why. I would be curious to know if Clancy wrote The Bear and the Dragon and The Teeth of the Tiger. I had a really hard time getting involved in those books. On another note, this link makes me happy (the chronological order of the books). I now need to go back and read them in order. I bet that would fill in some [not real] plot holes.

Sorry for the derail.

[FEJ]

just finished it. So tired. More later

[Gemini Cricket]

Question:
When Harry was 'dead' in the white Kings Cross station, what was the deal with the moaning fetus thing under the chair?

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

Question:
When Harry was 'dead' in the white Kings Cross station, what was the deal with the moaning fetus thing under the chair?

I thought maybe that was Voldie, I don't know, I wondered myself and hoped this would become clear when I re-read it.

Or was it a half-dead mandrake?

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

Question:
When Harry was 'dead' in the white Kings Cross station, what was the deal with the moaning fetus thing under the chair?

I think it was the bit of soul of Voldie that ended up in Harry.

[swanie]

OK - I have a question...

Mr. Swanie is about 200 pages into Deathly Hallows and he is convinced that Mad-Eye is still alive since he is one of the people that placed the enchantments on Grimmauld Place and that his Tongue-Tying Curse would have "expired" upon his death. Since Mad-Eye's Snape thingy comes up every time someone enters the house, he's convinced that he couldn't have really died. I know he'll figure out that he's really dead by the time the gang gets into the Ministry of Magic so I don't want to spoil his speculation at this point.

My question is was it ever made clear which charms/spells/curses/enchantments/hexes/etc. live on when a wizard dies? As I said, I didn't want to ruin his "what if?" thinking at this point, but I did point out that the photo and wall hangings in Sirius' room and his mom's portrait still hang in the house after their deaths even though they have attempted to take them down. But, one can argue that the magic dies with the wizard as did the spell that Dumbledore cast on Harry in the tower when Snape killed him. Is it that magic can remain on inanimate objects and not on living things? Or is it the fact that it was a "curse" on the house and it boils down to the specific kind of magic that is used?

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by swanie

But, one can argue that the magic dies with the wizard as did the spell that Dumbledore cast on Harry in the tower when Snape killed him.

What spell? I don't remember that. (I'm no memorizer.)

It's my impression that spells always stick, even after the caster dies, and that they must be undone by other wizards to be removed.

[swanie]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

What spell? I don't remember that. (I'm no memorizer.)

It's my impression that spells always stick, even after the caster dies, and that they must be undone by other wizards to be removed.

Dumbledore told Harry to go and get Snape, so he put on his Invisibility Cloak and started for the door. Just as Draco was bursting into the room, Dumbledore placed a freezing charm on Harry, so he couldn't move. That's how Harry watched the scene unfold...frozen in place and unable to move until Snape killed Dumbledore.

That's what I don't get. Is it just the matter of it being a charm vs. a curse, or an inanimate vs. animate object?

[innerSpaceman]

I think it's a matter of it not being consistent, or well thought-out by the author, and certainly not well explained by the author.


Much as I enjoy the Harry Potter books, J.K. Rowling is often a hack. Her stories are completely pedestrian, for the most part. The "rules" of the wizarding world are inconsistent at best, and not well conceived for dramatic purposes. It's her characters and the general world created that are her strong points.



*****


Ooooh, I love the mandrake-infant thing in King's Cross Limbo being the bit of Voldemort's soul now cast off from Harry. That makes much more sense and resonates far nicer than it simply being Volemort.

Although now I have to wonder what happened to Voldie while he, too, was unconsious. Did he go to a different Limbo? (A redder, hotter one?) Or was he simply blacked out?


I'm not expecting answers ... unless J.K. starts posting here. But I love the questions this brings up. Thanks, BTD, for the Voldie-Soul Cast-Off theory!

[Eliza Hodgkins 1812]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

I'm not expecting answers ... unless J.K. starts posting here. But I love the questions this brings up. Thanks, BTD, for the Voldie-Soul Cast-Off theory!

I assumed that the creepy Voldemort baby was a piece of Voldemort's soul, and that it was appropriately a creepy baby thing since Voldemort was reduced to being a creepy baby thing before Harry's blood and bone (in a way infected by that piece of Voldemort himself, since Harry was a Horcrux) restored him to his, uh, more manly status.