Pottermania

With the release of the first half of movie version of J. K. Rowling's last Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (the second half will be out in the summer), Harry Potter has been back in the news. I'm very excited about the new movie coming up and hope to see it in theatres soon - although not too soon as to avoid crowds.

Recently J.K. Rowling commented to the effect that she would not be adverse to writing a new book set in the Harry Potter universe - although she explained that the book would not feature Harry Potter prominently or at all, therefore allowing Daniel Radcliffe the ability to continue his adult career unimpeded (I suppose this presumes that the book would be immediately turned into a movie - given Rowling's unprecedented success, that appears highly likely.)

I did enjoy the Harry Potter series and I own the last three books. I enjoyed how it morphed from a likeable series about a young wizard into a full-blown dramatic epic about the battle between good and evil. I even enjoyed the movies too - they were mostly spot-on except for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: too much time spent on the first challenge with the dragon and a whole sequence that didn't appear in the book which meant that other parts of the book had to be shortened or ignored altogether. Just follow the story - the books are already jam-packed with adventure and nothing new is needed. Don't add new things that only serve to take away from the story already contained in the book!

Anyway, a rant about the movie is not the point of this post. The point is: would you be interested in reading more about the Harry Potter world? And, if so, who should Rowling write about? There has been a lot of discussion on this topic at the Entertainment Weekly website lately, and it seems that most of the commenters are split between two possibilities: a sequel with Harry's and Ron's kids at Hogwarts; or a prequel about Harry's parents at Hogwarts. My first reaction when I heard of Rowling's plans was that I would enjoy a prequel. So much of what happened in the Harry Potter series had its roots in the past, so I would like to see that explored. And I agree with the commentators who have suggested that the prequel should be narrated by Harry's mom Lily. That would be a nice change. Although in that case you may not get into all the mischief that Harry's dad got into - so perhaps two books - one narrated by Lily and one by James?

I am not really interested in a sequel about Harry's kids - seeing who their dad was and what happened to him, they'd have a lot to live up to and some pretty tremendous adventures would have to happen to them. I'm happy to leave them where Rowling does at the end of book 7.

Some other interesting suggestions have been made: a book of short stories about various adventures in the lives of various characters (such as Luna, Neville, Snape, James, Lily and so on). That would be interesting in that we would get to meet a bunch of new characters and get little snippets of their lives. There's also been a lot of interest in Neville - many people seem to think that this character was underutilized and has this rich, interesting backstory that never really was fully explored. It would be interesting to hear the Potter story from Neville's point of view. Another intriguing option that I have heard was to rewrite the Potter books from the point of view of another student, maybe a minor character on the edge of the Potter series or even a new character - someone in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. We'd get to see all of Potter's adventures from a new set of eyes, and see how the other students viewed the happenings. Of course, that wouldn't be as epic as the Potter series since Harry Potter was the epicentre of the series - he was the focal point because the adventures were happening to him, not to anyone else.

So, Potterphiles, what would you like to read if Rowling writes another in the Potter universe? Sequel, prequel, or a story about someone else? Let's discuss this in the comments below.