Harry Potter and the Moodswings of Doom

About halfway through HP and the Order of the Phoenix. I'm not going to post spoilers here, at least not until I've finished the thing (and then they'll be behind a cut tag). I will say that if you liked Goblet of Fire, you'll like OotP because it's more of the same, more of the same, more of the same.

I personally preferred Prisoner of Azkaban, which was the last of the semi-self-contained "an adventure at Hogwarts" type stories, and also the beginning of Harry Potter Is In a Big, Fat Fantasy. I'm still reading it for the same reason I could force myself to read through to the end of Lord of the Rings -- i.e., I wanted to see how the characters ended up. But I'm not enjoying it the way I did the first three books.

-The Gneech

Edit: I do think it's worth mentioning that I am impressed by Mme. Rowling's ability to spin such a large yarn and keep all the threads from unraveling. She does a very good job of having created a deep, multilayered story and setting, which gets revealed layer-by-layer like an onion. She's not just slapping this thing together as she goes, she's sat down and worked it out -- and I admire that.

Hmm...

I've been pondering potential heroes for my fantasy fiction; I wonder if Bugbear is a strong enough character to pull it off, once he's had the D&Disms stripped off.

PROS:

* Strong personality
* Capable of convincingly taking on big, bad villains and winning
* Distinctive enough to stand out from other hero-types
* Likeable

CONS:

* Monster hero too cliché?
* Definitely gotta strip those D&Disms!
* No room for bugbears in Ethangea as written -- so either it has to change, or he gets his own setting

The idea's worth toying with, anyhow.

-The Gneech