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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
Really enjoyed this and hope to read more. A must for Potter fans that always want more!!!
Harry Potter fans rejoice! Harry's children have adventures as well.
This book series focuses on G. Norman Lippert's fan homage. From what is intended to be a five part series, this review only references the beginning two books as I have not yet had time to delve further. A follow up review may touch in those, of which I believe are similar quality.
Quick backstory: To my understanding based on varied sources, the series was written by Lippert, purely to please himself, wife, and children. Lippert found very quickly that he has a knack for this sort of thing. His ability to string words together in a pleasing manner and formulate detailed and original plotlines is pretty stellar.
Releasing his fanfic in official ebook format, an instant following has organically grown. A couple cease and desist processes later, he has been officially unofficially allowed to continue his work, provided he makes no money from Rowling's IP.
**Several derivitive works exist which he can make cash off of that do not infringe on any element of Rowling's IP and if you read this series, you should absolutely show your thanks and appreciation by also enjoying his other books. Doing so would allow him to feed his family whilst feeding your imagination.
Voila. A new story line exists.
The James Potter books pick up immediately where the last Rowling book ends. HP son James Potter climbs aboard the Hogwarts Express and heads to his first school year.
James Potter is dropped into a world where his father is a hero. Where his entire family history is tied to location based mythology and he is expected to achieve great things due to his genetic tie to his father. James however is a bit more clumsy. He cannot ride a broom and is terrible at Quiddich. Teachers who remember his father (now Head Auror) call him by his fathers name, or immediately treat him different. His peers mock him as a relative to celebrity. JP has to find his own voice. He resents his fathers shadow, while unconciously wishing he could live up to his image.
The plot of the initial book revolves around a tri-storyline.
First: Hogwarts is visited by several ambassadors from an American sister school system. The American ambassadors approach magic in a manner which is confusing and contrary to to Hogwarts and old world fashion. With this Ambassadorship comes several branches. Included is an American student, enrolled in Hogwarts while his father works at the Ministry as an american representative.
Second: Older year Slytherins have started an inquisition. Their goal is to disprove that Harry Potter is a good man, to show that he was a bully and in many ways a terrorist and a liar.
Third: James and his friends are drawn into the Forbidden forest by circumstance of being idiotic preteen kids and doing what idiotic preteen kids do. They find themselves confronted by an ominous and magically protected living island. As all kids will do, they poke it with a stick until it reacts and violetly shows you why you should have not poked it in the first place. Queue The Hall if Elders Crossing"...
All in all, it was a great book and led me to reading the second which was equally enjoyable.
Before we get too far into this, please note that these are LOOONG books. The first is an ebook equiv of 550 pages. So if you are expecting watery pages of exposition, recognize that official fevered effort went into these.
The novels have parallels to the original in design. To start, they are formulaic. Kids get into trouble, they gather bits and pieces of a plot Hardy Boys style, ultimately finding that they overthought everything, as kids do. Even the titles follow the proven pattern, James Potter and the insert ominous image here. There are even some blatantly lifted elements which are applied in a wholly original fashion, I suppose this cannot be entirely avoided. As a derivitive work, it is bound to swipe an idea or two, but it is also a series about kids 20ish years after the a war that their families were involved in and that their media applies virtual levels of sainthood against.
Advanced readers may also find references to the original works a bit overwhelming at first. The author is still world building for his new characters and capitalizing on the existing text. This is temporary. Looking at the first novel alone, you can see striation marks where his skill or confidence took a leap.
Highly suggested original plots in a detailed world that the author is blatantly comfortable writing in.
The books are free in ebook format, remember to check out Lippert's other paid works.
Read:
James Potter and the Hall of Elders' Crossing
James Potter and the Curse of the Gatekeeper
Unread:
JP and the Vault of Destinies
JP and the Morrigan Web
JP and the Crimson Thread (currently unreleased)
** Not to be confused with alt fan series about James Potter Sr (HP's father) and the Marauders **
https://toasttoasted.blogspot.com/2015/08/review-james-potter-fan-novels-g-norman.html
This book series focuses on G. Norman Lippert's fan homage. From what is intended to be a five part series, this review only references the beginning two books as I have not yet had time to delve further. A follow up review may touch in those, of which I believe are similar quality.
Quick backstory: To my understanding based on varied sources, the series was written by Lippert, purely to please himself, wife, and children. Lippert found very quickly that he has a knack for this sort of thing. His ability to string words together in a pleasing manner and formulate detailed and original plotlines is pretty stellar.
Releasing his fanfic in official ebook format, an instant following has organically grown. A couple cease and desist processes later, he has been officially unofficially allowed to continue his work, provided he makes no money from Rowling's IP.
**Several derivitive works exist which he can make cash off of that do not infringe on any element of Rowling's IP and if you read this series, you should absolutely show your thanks and appreciation by also enjoying his other books. Doing so would allow him to feed his family whilst feeding your imagination.
Voila. A new story line exists.
The James Potter books pick up immediately where the last Rowling book ends. HP son James Potter climbs aboard the Hogwarts Express and heads to his first school year.
James Potter is dropped into a world where his father is a hero. Where his entire family history is tied to location based mythology and he is expected to achieve great things due to his genetic tie to his father. James however is a bit more clumsy. He cannot ride a broom and is terrible at Quiddich. Teachers who remember his father (now Head Auror) call him by his fathers name, or immediately treat him different. His peers mock him as a relative to celebrity. JP has to find his own voice. He resents his fathers shadow, while unconciously wishing he could live up to his image.
The plot of the initial book revolves around a tri-storyline.
First: Hogwarts is visited by several ambassadors from an American sister school system. The American ambassadors approach magic in a manner which is confusing and contrary to to Hogwarts and old world fashion. With this Ambassadorship comes several branches. Included is an American student, enrolled in Hogwarts while his father works at the Ministry as an american representative.
Second: Older year Slytherins have started an inquisition. Their goal is to disprove that Harry Potter is a good man, to show that he was a bully and in many ways a terrorist and a liar.
Third: James and his friends are drawn into the Forbidden forest by circumstance of being idiotic preteen kids and doing what idiotic preteen kids do. They find themselves confronted by an ominous and magically protected living island. As all kids will do, they poke it with a stick until it reacts and violetly shows you why you should have not poked it in the first place. Queue The Hall if Elders Crossing"...
All in all, it was a great book and led me to reading the second which was equally enjoyable.
Before we get too far into this, please note that these are LOOONG books. The first is an ebook equiv of 550 pages. So if you are expecting watery pages of exposition, recognize that official fevered effort went into these.
The novels have parallels to the original in design. To start, they are formulaic. Kids get into trouble, they gather bits and pieces of a plot Hardy Boys style, ultimately finding that they overthought everything, as kids do. Even the titles follow the proven pattern, James Potter and the insert ominous image here. There are even some blatantly lifted elements which are applied in a wholly original fashion, I suppose this cannot be entirely avoided. As a derivitive work, it is bound to swipe an idea or two, but it is also a series about kids 20ish years after the a war that their families were involved in and that their media applies virtual levels of sainthood against.
Advanced readers may also find references to the original works a bit overwhelming at first. The author is still world building for his new characters and capitalizing on the existing text. This is temporary. Looking at the first novel alone, you can see striation marks where his skill or confidence took a leap.
Highly suggested original plots in a detailed world that the author is blatantly comfortable writing in.
The books are free in ebook format, remember to check out Lippert's other paid works.
Read:
James Potter and the Hall of Elders' Crossing
James Potter and the Curse of the Gatekeeper
Unread:
JP and the Vault of Destinies
JP and the Morrigan Web
JP and the Crimson Thread (currently unreleased)
** Not to be confused with alt fan series about James Potter Sr (HP's father) and the Marauders **
https://toasttoasted.blogspot.com/2015/08/review-james-potter-fan-novels-g-norman.html
I really don't follow fan fiction at all but this was really well written and engaging and a nice homage to the HP series.
I was skeptical to read this but figured I'd give it a go since I could do it online while I was bored. I was pleasantly surprised! It is, of course, not in the same league as Harry Potter, but still entertaining. And of course all of us fans have been dying to find out what happens next. i'd recommend this to HP fans to check out.
Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised with this book. Maybe it's not the best Harry Potter fanfiction ever written (I haven't read that many to make a judgement), but it's enjoyable enough and at times, hard to put down. I like James and his ultimate motive to escape from the shadow of his legendary father. I also like how Teddy Lupin and The Gremlins were written, it seems fit for me to think of Teddy as some apprentice to the Weasley twins' mischief (but no one can surpass the Weasley twins...really, no one can). James Potter's besties (Zane and Ralph) are likable too, but not as developed as Ron and Hermione were. At times I think they're overshadowing James too much. I understand that this might be deliberate in order to focus more on James' insecurity to live up to the magical world's expectation, but sometimes it's too much. It's nice that Zane and Ralph was sorted to other houses though. After the downfall of Voldemort, I think it's normal that the enmity between houses are somewhat cooled down...um, a little.
I can accept some alteration of canon and its reasoning. I can accept Zane being American, and the visit from Alma Aleron (the wizarding school in United States) along with their quirky professors, although their students were really a minor-almost-nonexistent part of the story. I can accept that younger students were taught harder subjects (like Arithmancy. Even the genius Hermione took it when she was, what, third year student?) I can accept James sharing room with older students, and only squirmed a bit when that professor from America tried to explain the science of magic (I know it's a nice attempt to explain about magic logically, but it's really making magic un-magical). However, some things keep bothering me from the very start.
First, There is just a little sense of difference in psychological development between younger and older students. I think it's a very important aspect that made me fell in love with Harry Potter series, because I can feel they grow along the series. Here? James and his friends were first years but sometimes didn't act and think like one. Seems that Mr. Lippert is more comfortable writing about older students.
Second, I can't accept that there were more than two houses in every class. It's believable for 'new' subjects like Technomancy, which was not normally taught in Hogwarts. But in one 'ordinary' class (like Muggle studies), sometimes we have Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and Slytherin together. That is plot-convenient, but...um, no. Just imagine how crowded the class would be.
Third, not only there were more than two house in every class, James shared some class with older students too. Like the said Muggle studies, James shared the class with first year Ravenclaws and Slytherins, also Ted Lupin (who was SEVENTH YEAR STUDENT), and several third and fifth year students. What did they do in that class? Playing football. *sneer* This contributed A LOT to the first point of my dissatisfaction.
Fourth, the Muggle infiltration part is downright ridiculous.
I like the idea though. Some twist were also nicely done. The antagonist is a bit like little Umbridge and has a lot of potential to be...um, a decent villain (I hate her name, though). The plot about Merlin is great and believable. I'd like to edit some part to fit better with the canon, but who am I? Hehe.
Overall, it's a nice dip in the magical world which is unseparable part of my childhood. I like it enough to continue reading the series. Kudos to Mr. Lippert for making this (and approved by J.K. Rowling herself, what an accomplishment). If only he would edit it a little bit...
(plus, it's free! :D)
I can accept some alteration of canon and its reasoning. I can accept Zane being American, and the visit from Alma Aleron (the wizarding school in United States) along with their quirky professors, although their students were really a minor-almost-nonexistent part of the story. I can accept that younger students were taught harder subjects (like Arithmancy. Even the genius Hermione took it when she was, what, third year student?) I can accept James sharing room with older students, and only squirmed a bit when that professor from America tried to explain the science of magic (I know it's a nice attempt to explain about magic logically, but it's really making magic un-magical). However, some things keep bothering me from the very start.
First, There is just a little sense of difference in psychological development between younger and older students. I think it's a very important aspect that made me fell in love with Harry Potter series, because I can feel they grow along the series. Here? James and his friends were first years but sometimes didn't act and think like one. Seems that Mr. Lippert is more comfortable writing about older students.
Second, I can't accept that there were more than two houses in every class. It's believable for 'new' subjects like Technomancy, which was not normally taught in Hogwarts. But in one 'ordinary' class (like Muggle studies), sometimes we have Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and Slytherin together. That is plot-convenient, but...um, no. Just imagine how crowded the class would be.
Third, not only there were more than two house in every class, James shared some class with older students too. Like the said Muggle studies, James shared the class with first year Ravenclaws and Slytherins, also Ted Lupin (who was SEVENTH YEAR STUDENT), and several third and fifth year students. What did they do in that class? Playing football. *sneer* This contributed A LOT to the first point of my dissatisfaction.
Fourth, the Muggle infiltration part is downright ridiculous.
I like the idea though. Some twist were also nicely done. The antagonist is a bit like little Umbridge and has a lot of potential to be...um, a decent villain (I hate her name, though). The plot about Merlin is great and believable. I'd like to edit some part to fit better with the canon, but who am I? Hehe.
Overall, it's a nice dip in the magical world which is unseparable part of my childhood. I like it enough to continue reading the series. Kudos to Mr. Lippert for making this (and approved by J.K. Rowling herself, what an accomplishment). If only he would edit it a little bit...
(plus, it's free! :D)
I just finished the book and can't wait to start the next book in Lippert's series. While this book isn't perfect, I completely enjoyed being back in the Potter world and liked the characters that Lippert added to Rowling's already full set of characters. I also enjoyed the expansion of Hogwarts grounds throughout the book, they seemed to fit right in with Rowling's vision. Definitely a good read, I would recommend it to any Harry Potter fan! Enjoy!
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I admit I'm usually skeptical concerning fan fiction, but Mr. Lippert's work was a very pleasant surprise. All of the old characters are there, along with new ones, some among which are very interesting. Technomancy was a great subject and Jakson an intriguing figure. The Merlin plot and the Muggle sneaking around Hogwarts offered some really good moments. However, there are a few things that disappointed me, so bear with me as I explain:
1. I was surprised to see Harry portrayed as the lonely hero who never asked for help. Really? In the "Philosopher's Stone", the trio goes to McGonagall with their suspicions of someone trying to steal the stone and are dismissed. Then, again, in the "Chamber of Secrets", Harry and Ron go to Lockhart with their information only to find out that he's a fraud. Let's not mention the "Prisoner of Azkaban" or the "Order of the Phoenix", when everyone keeps things from Harry. He asked Lupin for help to learn how to fight the Dementors and he asked for Fred and George's help to create a diversion etc etc. And Ron and Hermione were other people and Harry asked for their help all the time. I guess I just happen to disagree with the author on that.
2. The fact that students of all ages were taught the exact same things and that first years had the same courses as fifth years. Plus, the whole Staff before wands issue - Ollivanders has been around since 382 B.C.! I wouldn't mind if these details were not mentioned in the "Harry Potter" books, but since they are, why change them?
3. I was also surprised with the sudden bursts of stupidity on the part of the main characters. For example, they're talking endlessly about a big upcoming event and don't realize till the end that it's the alignment of the planets. Or the fact that Harry would have told his eleven-year-old son about Voldemort murdering Cedric Diggory at the Triwizard Tournament but not about how he summoned his broomstick with it and thus defeated a dragon (a story far better suited for children I might add)!
4. I was not convinced with the explanation concerning how the Merlin Staff got into Hogwarts. If they got both the Throne and the Robe in, why did the Staff need to enter another way? It just doesn't make much sense and the ending just complicates things.
4. The ending felt a little too rush, almost as if the author got tired with the story after a while.
1. I was surprised to see Harry portrayed as the lonely hero who never asked for help. Really? In the "Philosopher's Stone", the trio goes to McGonagall with their suspicions of someone trying to steal the stone and are dismissed. Then, again, in the "Chamber of Secrets", Harry and Ron go to Lockhart with their information only to find out that he's a fraud. Let's not mention the "Prisoner of Azkaban" or the "Order of the Phoenix", when everyone keeps things from Harry. He asked Lupin for help to learn how to fight the Dementors and he asked for Fred and George's help to create a diversion etc etc. And Ron and Hermione were other people and Harry asked for their help all the time. I guess I just happen to disagree with the author on that.
2. The fact that students of all ages were taught the exact same things and that first years had the same courses as fifth years. Plus, the whole Staff before wands issue - Ollivanders has been around since 382 B.C.! I wouldn't mind if these details were not mentioned in the "Harry Potter" books, but since they are, why change them?
3. I was also surprised with the sudden bursts of stupidity on the part of the main characters. For example, they're talking endlessly about a big upcoming event and don't realize till the end that it's the alignment of the planets. Or the fact that Harry would have told his eleven-year-old son about Voldemort murdering Cedric Diggory at the Triwizard Tournament but not about how he summoned his broomstick with it and thus defeated a dragon (a story far better suited for children I might add)!
4. I was not convinced with the explanation concerning how the Merlin Staff got into Hogwarts. If they got both the Throne and the Robe in, why did the Staff need to enter another way? It just doesn't make much sense and the ending just complicates things.
4. The ending felt a little too rush, almost as if the author got tired with the story after a while.
Great fan fiction; takes on Harry's son and his 1st year at Hogwart's. Lots of familiar things but just enough to support the new happenings. Recomend for any HP fans.
The beginning was intriguing. The development of the plot was good - using imagery from Rowling's books and explaining it even further, like for example how apparition really works. The fact that we get to know characters from other houses was a great idea and really refreshing, something I missed in the original Potter stories. The fact that we get to enjoy Snape's continuing 'presence' in painting-form is a major bonus.
On the downside - to me - the fact that Lippert is North American really shows as there are a lot of American characters popping up and the language is not quite the same as Rowling's.
Even though I enjoyed reading it I must say the culmination and the end were a bit of a disappointment because everything happened and got resolved too quickly. It felt too easy. There was very little gut-wrenching suspense and - unlike Harry Potter books - no real life-threatening situations nor super evil nemesis. So my main critique is that parts of the development were not realistic. I would however consider reading the next book to see what sort of 'bad stuff' he will come up with next and hope that he will master the skills of 'suspense'.
On the downside - to me - the fact that Lippert is North American really shows as there are a lot of American characters popping up and the language is not quite the same as Rowling's.
Even though I enjoyed reading it I must say the culmination and the end were a bit of a disappointment because everything happened and got resolved too quickly. It felt too easy. There was very little gut-wrenching suspense and - unlike Harry Potter books - no real life-threatening situations nor super evil nemesis. So my main critique is that parts of the development were not realistic. I would however consider reading the next book to see what sort of 'bad stuff' he will come up with next and hope that he will master the skills of 'suspense'.