Of all seven Harry Potter novels, this is the only one to have won a Hugo award. Is it the best of the seven? The most Sci, the most Fi? Hard to say. What it is, is epic. 636 pages, almost triple the first book. The timing of the novel (and I’m casting my memory back 10 years), was after the craze had gone international, and only a year before the release of the first movie. So by this point, the publishers were probably happy to give J. K. Rowling free reign (with very little editing) to chock it full of every whim and storyline that came to her. She was, after all, their license to print money.

So we find ourselves faced with 636 pages and dozens of different story threads, many of which could probably have been left out. (The real testament to this is how easily the movie leaves them out -- Ludo Bagman for one, S.P.E.W for another).

But is it any good???

Well, yeah. It’s got some beautiful moments of writing that echo the playful children’s book tone of the first novel (Harry and Ron attempting to ask girls to the dance is the first to spring to mind).

It’s got some emotional depth -- almost painfully so -- in the growing relationship between Harry and his newly-discovered Godfather, Sirius Black. They both struggle to be so goddamn manly with each other that I have not yet found any paragraph before Sirius inevitably (spoiler!) dies at the end of book #5 in which they hug. (Would love to be proven wrong -- the movies don’t count -- with page numbers: cathy@geekspeakmagazine.com)

And finally, it’s scary -- it’s got death hitting very close to home for Harry, when an important character is killed standing by Harry’s side. As they say in cop movies, shit just got real.

So, a summary of the plot: Harry Potter is about to begin his fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He gets a special treat in his summer holidays: England is hosting the World Cup! Sorry, football fans. Put down your soccer balls and grab your broom sticks, it’s Quidditch! Harry attends the final match with his best friends Ron and Hermione. Dark wizards are afoot, in amongst the happy revelers, and they cause a mini-riot in the post match celebrations.

Meanwhile, our trio return to school and are delighted to hear that another major sporting event is to take place: the Triwizard Tournament. Three (tri?) wizarding schools meld for the year as one champion from each school competes in three (tri?) tasks of daring to eventually win the glory and fame and money. But Dark wizards are afoot! And one of them has boldly cast a spell on the eponymous Goblet Of Fire (the impartial judge who selects our Triwizard competitors) to ensure Harry is drawn… as the incongruous fourth (tri?) wizard. Huh. Luckily for plot devices, a “binding magical contract” keeps Harry in the game, as he daringly (yet barely) survives the next eight months and three tasks. The reason for Harry’s inclusion? Dark Forces sneakily help him win so that he is first to touch The Cup and can be transported by magical means away from the school, and away from the protection of his headmaster Albus Dumbledore, and into the waiting arms (little T-rex style baby arms) of weakened villain Lord Voldemort.

Voldemort, once he gets Harry alone, can work some magic of the evil variety and restore his adult (and creepy) body to the health it hasn’t known since Harry himself unknowingly destroyed it as an infant. Harry escapes, and we end our story with a feeling of unease, and Dumbledore’s comment that “we are all facing dark and difficult times”. Indeed.

I’ve always loved this book. Rereading it over the last week with a critical reviewer’s eye, I spotted numerous plot holes and devices that were less obvious to me as a young reader. Probably the biggest stretch is Rowling’s habit of having each of the books span the entire school year, so the Triwizard tasks are in November, February and June. Yet this requires the visiting foreign students to be away from their country and parked at Hogwarts for the entire year, only to be seen at mealtimes or when the plot requires them. Great big chunks of time are passed over arbitrarily, so that the main events can having this spacing… though it sorta feels like spacing for the sake of spacing, if you get my drift.

Now, Rowling is a positively BRILLIANT creator of worlds -- much like Tolkien, she created histories (and futures) and back stories and characters we never even encounter in the books, just to make it more real and 3D. She planned her seven year plot arc well, planting hints and clues and red herrings right from day one. So she deserves her billions of dollars. And I will forgive any other small plot holes and stretches of reality because (at its heart) it is a series for young readers -- we adults who got hooked did so at our own peril.

Goblet of Fire is probably not the best of the seven -- there’s ultimately too many threads, they inevitably tangle themselves trying to each have a moment of attention and final resolution -- but it’s a great read, and a great adventure. It spawned a fantastic movie (that rosy-cheeked young guy who plays Cedric sure is cute!) and serves as a good middle point to this blockbuster series of which I have been a huge fan for over a decade.
 
  -- Cathy Thomson
 

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Further Reading

Geek VS Geek - Harry Potter: Over-rated and Not Very Good VS Harry Potter: Over-rated but Very, Very Good, issue 3.