Rating: 
Summary: Less humor, more foreboding
Review: Wow, finishing this book only an hour ago, I have to say that the days of Lockhart and other wild antics seem to be long gone. Everything, including Dobby and Hagrid has turned much darker and more foreboding. I love the Harry Potter series, but I wish this book had more lighter moments to balance out the ominous tone in this book.
Rating: 
Summary: More of the same
Review: The fifth installment of the chronicle of Harry Potter is satisfying to Harry Potter fans but lacks some of the tension, excitement and creativity of the earlier books. As an adult reader I have primarily enjoyed the facinating information about the alternative lifestyle of the wizarding world. Not much new here except insight into the process of wizard housekeeping. Umbridge as the new evil at Hogwarts lacks the menace found in the earlier books and the the prophecy revealed atthe end is no surprise as most readers will have figured that out early in book one. It's worth reading if you liked the earlier books but hopefully serves mainly to set up the denouement for the final books with Harry and his friends playing more adult roles.
Rating:
Summary: The 5th Installment Does Not Disappoint
Review: When Book 4 of the Harry Potter series, Goblet of Fire, was released there was much written about the "dark" turn the series had taken. Clearly, the plot and characters had seasoned and more appropriately reflected the increasing impact that external factors have upon each of us as we age. In Book 5, The Order of the Phoenix, this seasoning of the story line and characters continues. The relationships between Harry and his friends, mentors, teachers and enemies take on a decidedly more mature tone. The character interactions and motivations are more complex including the labile and sometimes painful emotions of the teenaged adolescent. In addition, the consequences of decisions and actions are more serious but also are true to life. In The Order of the Phoenix there is a continued building of the original story with additional background provided regarding several main characters. This book was not as tightly knit as the previous books in the series as the actual Order of the Phoenix, its origins and purpose were not fully defined to this reader's satisfaction. However, the rich context and remarkably creative imagery that J.K. Rowling has used to create the believable "wizarding world" are found in this book in full measure. Absolutely a pleasure to read - Book 5 has enhanced the luster of this series.
Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly Enjoyable
Review: After a marathon of practically non-stop reading, I've finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It was excellent, just like the previous four books. I do have to say that of the five, this book was my least favorite. I felt a little less surprised than I had while reading the other books. But J.K. Rowling's wonderful descriptions are still there, as well as the characters I've fallen in love with and love to hate. This book is a little darker than the others. I liked this. I felt that it was leading up to something BIG. I also liked the introduction of some new characters, especially Luna Lovegood. I wonder what part she's going to play in six and seven!
Rating: 
Summary: J. K. Rowling delivers another fun novel, but not her best
Review: I was not one of the people who lined up at midnight to pick up the Order of Phoenix, the fifth novel in the Harry Potter Series. But I did buy it first thing in the morning and was looking forward to read it. The book starts out very exciting- within the first 10 pages, Harry is attacked by magical creatures called dementors, has to defend himself with magic and gets in trouble with the law (he is not allowed to use magic outside of school). The book really hooks you in at the beggining. Soon Harry makes it to school only to discover that his favourite teacher Hagrid is mysteriously gone and the new Defense against the Dark Arts teachers is a poor hungry, evil woman. One thing lacking in this book, that the other Potter books were full of, is action. There was alot of action in the beginning, there is very exciting action at the end, but the 600 pages in the middle tended to be quite boring. There was no big mystery to solve in this book, like we have seen in the rest of the series. For example, in book one we only found out who wants the philosopher's stone at the very end, but there was no such mystery to solve in this book. The majority of the book just describes Harry's teenage anxiety. But we do discover alot about Harry and the wizard world in the process Overall, I thought this book was the one of the worst Harry Potter books yet, but a bad Harry Potter book is still an incrediably magical book that is a pleasure to read. I would surely reccomend this book to anyone who enjoyed the last Potter books and I can't wait to read number 6 and 7of the series.
Rating:
Summary: Ok but lacking
Review: Maybe it's the over anticipation of the book but I was disappointed. The story was good but it lacked the attention to detail of the earlier books. The book covered many events but many of the events were not covered in depth. In the past books events flowed and allowed me to understand where, why and when; but this time characters had to explain it to me. The past books were fun romps with a dark under current. This book was dark with very little fun in it. The only bit of fun was limited to the twins and I felt it was a bit forced. I think that Ms. Rowlings needs to bring a little fun back into the future books. I will read the book again to see if perhaps I missed something 1st time around - unfortunately I don't think I did.
Rating:
Summary: The Battle Lines Have Been Drawn...
Review: Whew! I picked up the book Friday night at midnight, and just finished it an hour ago (had to eat). Now, the reason I read it so fast isn't because I'm such a big fan of the series (I am a fan, but not 'Trekkie-esque'), but I promised my neice I'd give her the book as soon as possible. It IS thirty dollars, after all...
Some folks say it drags, and in a few places it does; it is 870 pages. Maybe it should have been broken up into 2 books, but I will not second-guess the author. It is darker. Beyond the obvious (violence, sorcery et al), Harry is quickly becoming a teenager who is breaking under the pressure of both his past and his future - a future now unavoidable if what is written is true. Will he break? Maybe. J.K. Rowling has made no secret that Harry might not make it out of this alive. Unfortunately, it's not like he's getting too much help in staving off You-Know-Who. Of course he has Dumbledore and the Order and his classmates, but at times it seems that everyone else is against him. And the Ministry of Magic sadly comes off as just another bureaucracy that cannot prevent it's own corruption. Any hidden messages there perhaps?
By the end, Harry will know in no uncertain terms what his main goal is in his young life. The story (and our interest) will be in how it comes about.
If I had to criticize anything, it would be the decision to sprinkle crude language about. It just wasn't necessary to the story, really.
Favorite moment: Fred & George's stand.
Enjoy, all!
Rating:
Summary: The Best Harry Potter Yet
Review: The Order of the Phoenix, the fifth Harry Potter book, is far and away the most complex and compelling title in the series. It is longer and darker than the first four, but it is easily as interesting and hard to put down--if not more so--than its predecessors. What sets this book apart from the others is the extreme depth JK Rowlings goes into exploring the characters, their emotions, and the relationships between them. Harry is growing up and the book drags the readers along with him, allowing us to feel the same pain, angst, and disillusionment that this 15-year-old--who is literally carrying the world on his shoulders--is feeling. We are right there as he grapples with the moral "grayness" that emerges as characters who at one time seemed invincible and perfect reveal flaws and weaknesses. All of this leads to moments that are so beautiful and poignant and tragic that they literally bring the reader to tears. But of course, there is also a great deal of humor and fun in the book. Several new magical places are revealed to us including the Ministry of Magic, the Hospital, and more of Hogsmead and the forbidden forest. Poor Harry, in addition to saving the world, is struggling with his first romance, truly nasty teachers, his future career, and the infamous, dreaded O.W.L.s. Essentially, this book is everything we have come to expect from the Harry Potter novels and so much more. Children, especially younger children, might not understand everything that is going on, but they will still enjoy it, as will people of all ages. Considering that the quality of the books seems to grow with each sucessive installment, I don't know how I will possibly be able to wait for the next one. I suppose I will just have to reread the Order of the Phoenix a few dozen more times.
Rating:
Summary: Not terrible, but AZKABAN's still the best
Review: What can you say about a book this highly anticipated? It's bound to be at least a little bit of a let-down. And a let-down it is. Rowling does a nice job of spinning a yarn that's quite exciting at times, and no one will regret having read the book -- but it doesn't have the tight writing or the sense of wonder the second and third books had. The magic, if you will, is missing. What's wrong? To begin with, the thing runs 870 pages and could profitably have been trimmed by at least a third. It takes 200 pages just to get to Hogwarts, and there's a lot of repetition along the way. (Did we need to see the clumsy girl wizard knock over a chair 10 times? Wouldn't 5 have been enough? For that matter, why was that character even in the book? She doesn't do anything. Cut her out entirely and no one would ever notice the absence.) It feels as though Rowling is too big a star these days for any editor to dare to touch her prose, and that's a shame -- a good editor could have made the book a lot stronger. Then there's the tone. Yes, it's good that Harry's entering adolescence, and it's good that she treats it realistically -- but how much fun is it to see Harry being peevish, annoyed, grouchy, hurt, and resentful all the time? I'm not saying this isn't true to the character, just that it isn't much fun to read. You don't come to a Harry Potter book to read about Harry sniping at Ron and Hermione -- but that's what you get an awful lot of here. Similarly, the book's villain, Dolores Umbridge, is truly unpleasant, but not in a fun way -- she's annoying in the way a loathsome, politically minded bureaucrat is, and the tone of the book suffers for it. You grow to hate her, which is good, but you also grow to hate reading about her, which isn't. Then there's the fact that Harry and Dumbledore go through basically the entire book refusing to speak to or even look at each other, and the fact that Hagrid doesn't show up for hundreds of pages and then, when he does, he's bloody, missing some teeth, and sporting broken ribs and a black eye. I understand that Rowling wanted to vary the formula, but again, the particular choices she made made the book less enjoyable (for me). The climactic battle is thrilling but hard to follow -- bad enough when it's 10 bad guys against 6 good guys, but when Rowling throws in another 5 characters out of nowhere and you have to follow 21 different moving parts... I just gave up. And when the smoke all clears, the climactic unraveling disappoints. Dumbledore's big revelations aren't anything we haven't figured out long ago, and the MacGuffin of the story -- the thing Voldemort and his minions are striving to capture while all the forces of good are trying to keep it safe -- adds up to nothing much. The big "weapon" everyone's so excited about is something that, had Voldemort gotten it, would just have told him he'd done something foolish long ago. But so what? How would it have been useful to Voldemort? How could he have used it as a weapon, or at all? There were some good things, too. My favorite was the thestrals, invisible winged horses you can only see if you've witnessed a death. But for every good bit there were two weak ones (the resolution of the Hagrid subplot, for instance, or the way the subplot about the O.W.L. exams was left unresolved), and my overall impression upon finishing the book was...eh. Just 'eh.' Years from now, I'll still be telling people about the great twists in CHAMBER OF SECRETS and AZKABAN, but I doubt I'll remember the plot of this one for more than a month. And, sadly, I won't be looking forward to the sixth volume with nearly as much enthusiasm as I awaited this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Harry Schmotter!
Review: I got this book first day yay like the millions of you out there. Guess what, its a good book, but way too long and unnecessary.
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