This month's book reviews

Harry and his wizard allies fight for their lives
against the evil Voldemort

In "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince," Lord Voldemort seems to have regained his full powers. The book begins with the Prime Minister of Britain, the leader of the Muggles, being informed by an emissary of the wizards that the awful events occurring around the nation are caused by the evil wizard and his followers.

As Harry Potter and his classmates return to Hogwarts for their sixth year, they travel under tight security. They find the school is heavily guarded with students checked closely on entry or exit from the school. Town visits are limited much more than in the past. Harry Potter is more uptight than usual, as he feels himself to be a major player in the efforts to control the death and destruction that Voldemort is promoting.

Even as Harry buys his school supplies, he observes behavior on the part of Draco Malfoy that leads him to suspect that Malfoy is to be one of Voldemort's willing agents inside the walls of Hogwarts. Harry's obsessive concern over Malfoy and his distrust of Sevarus Snape, as the new instructor in Defense Against the Dark Arts, looms over all his activities in the new school year. His obsessive concern over Malfoy causes his two best friends, Hermione and Ron, to make fun of him. His hatred of Snape leads to his being called down more than once by Headmaster Dumbledore, who clearly trusts Snape, in spite of his suspicious behavior.

There are two major distractions from the darkness and gloom prevailing in Harry's life. One is his being named Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. The other is the increasing intensity of his romantic feelings toward Ginny Weasley. After years of ignoring her obvious affection for him, Harry is surprised to find Ginny has become the object of his affection, once she starts showing interest in other guys. Hermione's surprising romantic interest in Ron Weasley also only becomes apparent when Ron pairs off temporarily with another girl. Growing romantic interests put a strain on longstanding friendships.

Dumbledore begins to offer Harry individual tutoring sessions. It becomes clear that the elderly headmaster is grooming Harry to play an increasingly greater role in the fight against Lord Voldemort. Harry knows that he has been called "the Chosen One," but even as his confidence increases, he cannot yet see himself as an equal partner with the great wizard who heads Hogwarts.

Two things need to be pointed out about this sixth book in the Harry Potter series. One is, if you try to read it without having read the other books, you will be disappointed, because the story leans so heavily on earlier events. Secondly, the sudden violent ending, after all the 600 plus pages of entertaining but slow moving detail, will shock you. For those of you who've read the first six, the upcoming book seven has a lot of loose ends to tie up in order to bring the series to a satisfying conclusion.