Simplified Series - Harry Potter, Books 1-4

The correct order to read these books follows a "Z" pattern from top left to bottom right, like Zorro!

My feverish pursuit of MOAR content brought forth this feature: Simplified Series. Here's the pitch: quick synopses (I'll try and keep them spoiler-free, but, you know, most of these are past the statute of limitations on spoilers) of the entries in a series followed by the reasons you should or shouldn't read it. This week:

The Harry Potter heptalogy, part 1 by J.K. Rowling (look, on Monday I talked about how and the Deathly Hallows made me cry, and this week I blog-viewed (hmm, needs a better word) a book about someone discovering their magical heritage so this seemed to be the time to do Harry Potter, or at least the first 4 books (watch this space for books 5-7 in the near future)).

Background Info: Look, we all know that Joanne Rowling was a single mother when she published Harry Potter and the Philorceror's Stone and proceeded to make roughly all of the money. Who'd have thought that the public would be so hungry for a series of girl detective novels set at a British boarding school that also occasionally features magic in a manner that affects the plot.

Okay, I'm gonna stop you right there, Lucas!

Hypothetical Reader? But I usually keep you out of the Monday/Friday features!

The Harry Potter books are a series of boy detective novels. Harry Potter is a boy. He's the boy who lived.

But Hermione is the better detective. I mean, c'mon, she usually figures out a key part of the mystery before anyone else. While Harry usually just stumbles across information or has the antagonist explain the plot to him outright. Now, may I continue.

I suppose, but I feel like you're selling Harry short.

Quiet, you!

Anyway, let's look at the first four Harry Potter books or the pre-millenium tetralogy.

Harry Potter and the Sorlosopher's Stone (1997) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998) - These are, essentially, the same novel. Harry Potter discovers he's a wizard and is whisked away to a magic school where he finally makes a real friend for the first time ever. When Harry and Ron also befriend school know-it-all, Hermione Granger, their detective club gains the two major elements it's been missing: smarts and a work ethic. Anyway, both these books both revolve around mysterious rooms in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and the solution to both mysteries is that the evil Lord Voldemort is trying to get his physical body back (turns out that when he killed Harry's parents, he didn't count on the power of love). Will Harry be able to balance school work, sports practice, and stopping an evil wizard from returning from the dead?  Will he do accomplish this through some bullshit eleventh hour deus ex machina? Will Ron's facility with chess ever be important (or even mentioned) again after the first book? Is Hermione actually such an amazing detective that she's able to give Ron and Harry the final clue about the Chamber of Secrets while in a magical coma?

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999) - The first HP book to break formula in any significant way, this book does not feature Voldemort (spoilers?). What it does feature is Remus "I'm not a regular professor, I'm a cool professor" Lupin, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who shows the kids that learning can be fun. Also, he attended Hogwarts at the same time as Harry's parents, the asshole potions teacher, Severus Snape, and the novel's (other) title character (more on that in a moment). This year, Headmaster Dumbledore has upgraded the security system to include malevolent soul-devouring spirits who are nominally at the school to protect Harry from the escaped prisoner of Azkaban, Sirius Black, who allegedly sold Harry's parents out to Voldemort twelve years ago. Hermione really shows up Ron and Harry by carrying approximately double the course load of your average third year and figuring out that Professor Lupin is a werewolf. Meanwhile, Harry has a magical map that shows the location of everyone in the school and somehow doesn't even notice that there's always an extra person in his dorm. So wait, is Dumbledore just straight up trying to lure evil wizards to the campus of his school for children aged 11 to 17? Also, when Hagrid became the Care of Magical Creatures instructor, did he have to submit his syllabus for approval? If so, why was it approved? Will Harry solve the mystery of Sirius Black, or will the villain explain it to him at the novel's climax?

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000) - Do you looooove the fictional magic sport of Quidditch? Too bad! This one starts with the Quidditch World Cup. But the good news is that the Hogwarts Quidditch season is cancelled so that Hogwarts can compete against a couple of European magic schools in the Tri-Wizard tournament. And it looks like someone has sneaked Harry in as a competitor despite the fact that he's three years too young. The challenges are actually pretty fun and exciting, but not nearly as frightening as the prospect of asking your crush to go to the big dance! Ron secretly wants to ask Hermione to the big dance, and Hermione secretly wants Ron to ask her to the big dance, but neither of them will be able to articulate these secret feelings out loud for at least three more books. Meanwhile the new new DADA teacher, Mad-Eye Moody is a one-eyed, one-footed, alcoholic paranoiac who has the kids practice illegal (well, "unforgivable") spells on each other. Funsies! In the middle of all of this, Hermione develops a political consciousness when she realizes that House Elves are slaves, but for some reason this activism is played for comedy because the House Elves claim to like being unpaid servants who are forbidden from wearing real clothing? Weird choice, J.K. Who will win the Tri-Wizard tournament? Who cast a pall on the World Cup festivities by projecting the emblem of Voldemort's anti-muggle hate group, the Death Eaters? Will Harry and Ron be able to find dates in time the for the big dance? Will the series pull a fourth consecutive villain switcheroo?

Why should you read the first four Harry Potter books? You'd be lost trying to read the last three if you hadn't.  J/K LOL! These are fun books. The first three are pretty short, and Rowling becomes a better author in each installment (we'll see if this trend continues). Sure the fourth one is pretty long, but it's still a quick read because of just how much plot it brings to the table. Rowling excels at introducing readers to her magical world and to a sprawling cast of characters that you'll grow to love (or, in some cases, tolerate). She also subverts the kid detective genre by ensuring that Harry, Ron, and Hermione always get the solution to the mystery wrong (spoilers?). They get too focused on what they think the answer is and overlook clues pointing to an alternate solution. So take that, teen sleuths!

Why shouldn't you read the first four Harry Potter books? So, you can actually probably skip the first two books. They're not as good as the later ones, and, as mentioned above, are essentially the same book. And, honestly, the more Rowling grows her magical setting, the less I believe it. It might be because the later books have to grandfather in goofy elements from the first couple, but the Wizarding World just raises more questions than it answers. And not in a fun, "I want to know more," way, but in a not-so-fun, "I'll ignore that for the sake of the fun story I'm reading," way.

UPDATE: (8/17/2020) I know this is like two months too late, but the reason I now no longer suggest that people read Harry Potter is that J.K. Rowling has decided to publicly spread some gross and untrue things about transgender people, and I'm not cool with that. So I guess you can check it out of the library or something if you really, really want to, but at this point J.K. Rowling doesn't need more of your money.

Join us next Thursday or the Thursday after that (we'll see how the new feature I'm working on turns out) for Harry Potter heptalogy, part 2.

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So, and the Goblet of Fire beat out A Storm of Swords for the Hugo award in 2001, and George R.R. Martin has been, shall we say, less than gracious in defeat.