Tuesday, February 5, 2008

#6: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

Having been the last person on earth to read the first Harry Potter book, I decided to catch up to society and immediately begin listening to the second in the series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, chronicling Harry's next year at the magical school Hogwarts. This time out the school is under seige as several students are attacked, and rumors of a long-lost "Chamber of Secrets" sweeps through the school. Harry comes under suspicion and ends up needing the help of an enchanted car, a magical pet bird, and a raggedy wizard's hat to defeat this latest threat to boarding school education.

I enjoyed this entry in the series, though couldn't help but feel it didn't have quite the dramatic tension of the first one. Any follow-up suffers from having the shine off the apple, and I think the fact that I know a bit of what happens movie-wise in Harry's feud with Lord Valdemort makes much of this one seem a bit tangential.

But Rowling keeps things percolating and brimming with wit, and Jim Dale's reading of this audio book is excellent. I immediately grabbed up the next one in the series when returning this one today to the Morrison-Reeves Library in Richmond, Indiana.

No comments: