For the fun of it, we joined a line at a local independent bookstore last Friday night to get a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Here I will first review the series without reference to the final book, and then make some remarks about things that are missing from the series that could be viewed as very minor spoilers, because they refer to things that might have taken place in the final book, but did not — but for which knowing they did not will not spoil the book in any meaningful way. However, if you want absolutely no knowledge of this sort, stop reading.

Then I will link at the bottom to a section of the review that is full of spoilers of the final book.

I want to address two issues that play a major and minor role. The lesser one is slavery. While Hermione regularly complains about it, and Harry arranges to manumit one slave elf, the truth of it is that pretty much all the other “good guys” embrace slavery on a deep level. In a way, Hermione’s protest group only makes it worse. The good guys can’t claim they are ignorant of the situation. Dumbledore may be sympathetic to Hermione, but his school still owns many slaves.

It is not just the elves that are enslaved. It is rarely examined, but most classical magic requires the enslavement of intelligent spirits of various kinds. The creatures that live in the portraits seem to be fragments of intelligent minds. But nobody cares.

The big issue is that of nature and nurture. Voldemort’s agenda demands wizards be purebloods, a classic racist/fascist theme. The “good guys” oppose him, but at times only with lip service, for most of them remain highly prejudiced against Muggles. They are never seen to socialize with them, and there are no redeeming Muggle characters in the book. Hermione’s parents are never seen, and while the senior Weasley is fascinated by Muggles, this is considered a strange quirk, and he doesn’t seem to have them around to tea. Muggle acceptance consists largely of not killing or abusing them, and being tolerant of magical people who are born to them. We see references to Muggle studies, but it seems that most of the students learn nothing but magic at Hogwarts. There is no talk of science, human history, literature or the arts. Wizards seem to never be employed in anything but jobs relating to magic — thanks to the slaves and spells that manage most of the work. One wonders if the wizards and witches, out of the context of magic, would be remarkably dull people.

Voldemort’s own Muggle father never makes a lot of sense. Yes, we are told he hates that father and hates Muggles because of him, but why does his band of racist followers find this acceptable? It is suggested they don’t know it, but if so, why was this never released? Certainly Hitler’s Jewish roots were publicized after the war.

But most disturbing is Harry himself. Harry’s foster family — the ones who truly raised him — are shallow, mean and selfish. Remarkably so. And yet Harry’s strongest trait is being the opposite of these things. Harry is kind, giving, brave and true. Why? Clearly not because of his adoptive parents. And not because of upbringing by his genetic parents. There can be only one reason — blood will out. His genetic parents were good people, so he must be too, just as he inherited magical abilities from them. But this is not how it is for people who grow up raised by and abused by people like the Dursleys. Hermione is the only good present day character with Muggle parents. The rest of the major characters, as far as we can tell, except Voldemort, have magical parents.

So the book says one thing about race but does another. For Harry, breeding is what matters. Non-humans are generally hated, and while Hagrid is tolerated by our good guys, he’s an exception, not a rule.

Now, if you’ve read the book you can read on for the review of Harry Potter with spoilers.

This section of the review contains spoilers.

The first comment is that the 760 page Deathly Hallows is overlong. People have been amazed that Rowling has kids reading books of this length, and it is good, but she may have come upon the curse of the top-ranked writer — becoming more powerful than your editor. Rowling is way more powerful than any editor, and while I am sure she has good intentions and tries to listen to her editors, you can’t escape this.

The novel spends way too long with Harry and friends on the run, camping out. Her plan for the novel precluded any time at Hogwarts before the end, and the book has to suffer for it. This book has to be too much about Harry, and Harry on his own. It also results, I think, in the poor treatment of Snape.

I found Snape’s fate highly disappointing. Snape was the most conflicted character of the series. Yes, we had six books of Harry convinced that Snape was evil, and him not being so at the end, and we could tell that Snape killing Dumbledore was all part of a plan, but I had hoped this all pointed to a dramatic redemption for Snape.

Instead, he barely appears in the book, and his last brief appearance has him killed pointlessly. Voldemort is convinced that killing Snape will give him control of the wand, but it won’t, so Snape is eaten for nothing. It is only by tremendous luck that Harry is hiding nearby and can come collect his memories so that Snape can carry out the last part of the plan — convincing Harry he must let Voldemort kill him. Short of that he would have been just snake food, and the plan would have quite possibly failed.

Yes, many expected Snape’s redemption to involve learning to love Harry, and perhaps dying for that love in a repeat of Harry’s childhood tragedy. It’s OK that we didn’t get that, but we got little else in exchange. Snape’s real appearance is in his memories, where Dumbledore’s long term plan is revealed, with no real shockers other than Dumbledore telling Snape that Harry is to die, and he’s OK with that. It’s all for love of Lily, we learn, but sure shown in a strange way.

Voldemort also remained one dimensional, a caricature of evil. We’re given the excuse that his soul has been torn apart, but could he not have been given some better motives, a little more depth? Could we not have believed for a second he might have listened to Harry’s plea that he have some remorse?

Draco Malfoy’s fate is also confusing and disappointing. As a child, he had a serious opportunity for redemption, especially after Harry saves him. He does not appear to go to prison (because he is a child) though his parents surely will. They also gain no redemption, stopping their aid to Voldemort only to protect their son.

So the only character who really changes, from our view, is Dumbledore, and he’s dead. He becomes more 3 dimensional, has a little evil in his past. Hermione remains smart and Harry pure. Ron gets a bit smarter but remains Ron. Hagrid and all the rest remain the same.

There is some resolution of the points I speak of in the non-spoiler part of the review of course. The slavery of the elves is given a little more treatment, and Ron wakes up about it, but there is not much more. We also finally learn a little bit about the Goblins, and their history and mistreatment. In an interesting side note, we are warned of the dangers of trying to cheat a Goblin, and yet after Harry deals the Sword to the Goblin, Longbottom is able to pull it out of the sorting hat to kill the snake, which presumably means the Goblins have lost it again, and should come back angry.

The entire “It could be Longbottom or Potter” in the prophecy gun-on-mantelpiece is never fired. It’s Potter. And we see that the prophecy is one of those causal-loop types. Voldemort comes to kill baby Harry because of the prophecy, and it is this mission which sticks a bit of his soul into Harry, causing his eventual defeat in a battle with Harry and other fulfillments of the prophecy.

As other critics have suggested, the Deathly Hallows, and the Elder wand are something seemingly invented entirely for this book. Usually in a planned 7 book series you hope the crucial plot points were introduced in earlier books.

As I noted in my non-spoiler section, I was always disappointed with the Dursleys, the only real Muggle characters in the book. They are quickly disposed of in the first few pages, and not seen again except for an appearance in memories by Petunia. Curiously, we are told she applied to Hogwarts, and was apparently accepted, and then backed out. Were they willing to take a Muggle? Or is this a hint she had some sort of magical powers that never were revealed, which might show up in a future non-Harry book?

Now I may sound a bit down here, but there were many positive elements. The final battle is dramatic and satisfying, and it’s good to see Harry actually standing up to Voldemort and telling him he knows magic that Voldemort doesn’t. But there is much that could have been improved.