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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
I thought this was probably the best I could expect from a work of fan-fiction.
My first thoughts when I learned that there was a "James Potter" series was something along the lines of thinking "How lame."
Don't get me wrong, I adore the Harry Potter series, but since these aren't by Rowling, I didn't plan to read it.
However, I was exploring Goodreads e-book option, (which is really cool) and I saw this as the number one downloaded book.
Longer story shorter, I downloaded the PDF, and it kept me a little sane at the office, being able to escape when I wanted to, reading it right on my computer screen, so no one knew.
I was very surprised. Lippert kept the feel and tone of the Rowling Potter books quite well. It was fun to revisit some of the same characters from the Harry books, and a couple of Lippert's own creations were fun as well.
I loved the invention of the American wizarding school, and even more that Benjamin Franklin (Franklyn, to wizards) was a part of it.
My only gripe, if you're reading this, Lippert, was that the story felt like it fell apart a little bit at the end.
My first thoughts when I learned that there was a "James Potter" series was something along the lines of thinking "How lame."
Don't get me wrong, I adore the Harry Potter series, but since these aren't by Rowling, I didn't plan to read it.
However, I was exploring Goodreads e-book option, (which is really cool) and I saw this as the number one downloaded book.
Longer story shorter, I downloaded the PDF, and it kept me a little sane at the office, being able to escape when I wanted to, reading it right on my computer screen, so no one knew.
I was very surprised. Lippert kept the feel and tone of the Rowling Potter books quite well. It was fun to revisit some of the same characters from the Harry books, and a couple of Lippert's own creations were fun as well.
I loved the invention of the American wizarding school, and even more that Benjamin Franklin (Franklyn, to wizards) was a part of it.
My only gripe, if you're reading this, Lippert, was that the story felt like it fell apart a little bit at the end.
I don't think I've ever read fan fiction before this, so it was definitely interesting. The storyline was great, even though I didn't like many parts of it because I thought they were too unbelievable or convenient. Though you can tell the tone wasn't JK Rowling like how the cursed child play wasn't her, it was still really enjoyable. He did a great job in grasping the feel of the world that I have loved and missed. Other irks are just minor details that the inner Potterhead in me is like "that's not accurate from the real series." It was actually kind of fun detecting what wasn't consistent to the original work.
A perfect theme - I am not Harry Potter. As long as you can remember this, you will enjoy!
Playing Jokers Blog: all suits of genres and bookish news
Let's judge it for what it is. It is fan fiction. It is not J.K. Rowling nor is it Harry Potter.
In some ways, it's like watching (in my opinion) the first few Harry Potter movies, where many of the details from the books were changed or omitted and you're still grappling with how Hogwarts in the movies wasn't exactly the way you had imagined it when reading the books.
James Potter is Harry's son. So it's strange to read that Harry is some young father. But I found that a bit strange even coming from the epilogue in the Deathly Hallows so there you go. But in order to enjoy the story for what it is, you have to release yourself from comparisons and various outrages of how first years don't take divination or arithmancy, or why the hell are there Americans in Hogwarts, and really? Benjamin Frankli(y)n?
Once you release that because you've accepted you're reading fan fiction, then you can enjoy the little things, like Ralph creating a peach tree, and finding Snape everywhere. It were those moments that had me looking forward to reading the story to see what would happen next.
However, I have one complaint and I have been careful to make sure that it is a compaint based on the story itself and not any comparisons.
As this book was available for free and without downloading on Goodreads, I'd recommend it to anyone who is looking for a light read in a universe that is always bound to create some happy nerd smiles.
Let's judge it for what it is. It is fan fiction. It is not J.K. Rowling nor is it Harry Potter.
In some ways, it's like watching (in my opinion) the first few Harry Potter movies, where many of the details from the books were changed or omitted and you're still grappling with how Hogwarts in the movies wasn't exactly the way you had imagined it when reading the books.
James Potter is Harry's son. So it's strange to read that Harry is some young father. But I found that a bit strange even coming from the epilogue in the Deathly Hallows so there you go. But in order to enjoy the story for what it is, you have to release yourself from comparisons and various outrages of how first years don't take divination or arithmancy, or why the hell are there Americans in Hogwarts, and really? Benjamin Frankli(y)n?
Once you release that because you've accepted you're reading fan fiction, then you can enjoy the little things, like Ralph creating a peach tree, and finding Snape everywhere. It were those moments that had me looking forward to reading the story to see what would happen next.
However, I have one complaint and I have been careful to make sure that it is a compaint based on the story itself and not any comparisons.
Spoiler
I did not understand the sudden change in Merlin's behavior once he returned from the forest. I understand that he traveled to various places and communed with nature to learn of this world enough to comprehend it a bit better. But to make the shift from feeling as an outsider to Hogwarts to then referring to it as 'we' and offering Mr. Deedle a job? That calls for a much larger shift than what I feel like actually happened. Unless of course there was a lot more that happened behind the scenes, which I can only assume happened.As this book was available for free and without downloading on Goodreads, I'd recommend it to anyone who is looking for a light read in a universe that is always bound to create some happy nerd smiles.
I honestly only read the first few chapters. It is a good idea but it just tries WAY too hard.
If you love Harry Potter you will love this cute little story about his first son James. It is a very simple read and quite enjoyable.
I got excited when i heard that this was a fan fiction taking place almost exactly from the epilogue of deathly hallows. I knew from the start that i shouldn't compare it to JKR and tried my best not to. But there are key bad points to this story that make me appreciate why authors dont like fanfiction in the first place. I have each HP book at least seven times and to be honest, while Lippert tries to stick to the original canon, he doesnt succeed. My first big problem came when we had "Technomancy" class. Honestly, what is the point of scientifically explaining "Magic" He misses the whole point of it being magical and tries to break it down into science rubbish that no one really understands anyway.... even Lipperts own characters dont get it (Teddy Lupin). So he took out the magic, and pretty much any use of actual spells, so no creative work there. But my next big problem came with his characterization of the adults in this book. Honestly, if ever there were adults who listened to kids more than average, it would be in the HP series. But Lippert flippantly says that kids need proof and adults dont listen or believe you. Its just utter crap. You dont get to even really see Ron or Hermione or even Ginny, and Harry isnt even all that present. And Neville acts like a totally new character! And Benjamin Franklyn, "Stonewall" Jackson.... im aamerican and i was practically throwing up. All that name tossing just to make it suited to his taste just isnt proper. I loved Harry, even when he was being a bit of an idiot, but i really dislike his "James" character immensely. He's under his father's shadow, i get that. But Lippert makes him stubborn and dense on purpose, just for him to be willful because no one else is right. I admit that i am a purist when it comes to HP and if you can honestly think that Lippert excelled at what he twistedly created, then you must not have really got Harry Potter in the first place. Lippert earned his one star.
It started pretty slowly and it's obviously not the same as reading J. K. Rowling, but Lippert creates great NEW characters. I went into it expecting it to be as great as Harry Potter, and it's not the same and that was unfortunate - but once I got over my disappointment at that, I realized that I could appreciate all the Lippert did well. If you really love Harry Potter and you're not ready for their stories to be over just yet, this is a great book for you. You still get glimpses of a lot of those familiar faces - McGonagall, Neville, Hermione, Ron and Harry are all there. The portraits of Snape and Dumbledore also make appearances. I very much enjoyed the story. There was ample intrigue and surprise, as in any Harry Potter book and I am very glad to have found these books.
This was my first ever experience of fan-fiction, kind of inspired by my reading of Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I listened to this through a free podcast series by Living Audio which can be found on Itunes.
So here goes my rambly thoughts:
With the HP series being my favourite ever, I found myself being really critical of this book. More consciously noting things I did and did not like about this book and comparing it to the original serie. And obviously this can never be AS good as the original, but I've got to admit .. it was really pretty good!
To sum up some things I really appreciated:
- James was a really believable character being the "son of Harry Potter" and the struggles that come with that. I also enjoyed his relationship with Harry and liked Harry himself as well. I liked Ralph, Zane and Ted as well, although I would have liked to see a bit more fun.
- It didn't try to be too much like the originals, taking risks and introducing new things as well such as Technomancy class which I quite enjoyed (obviously didn't love all the add ons but it was pretty well done for the most part).
- The plot was interesting enough and I see a lot of potential for the rest of the series!
And some things I didn't like:
- The new teachers, or most of the adult characters anyway. Mcgonagall wasn't done very well in my opinion, I hated the addition of Benjamin Franklin (really, why??) and didn't appreciate Ginny, Hermione or Neville. I also still don't really see the point of having half the teachers being American. It just seemed an easy way to introduce the characters to the story and it wasn't really made clear what the American students were supposed to be doing the entire year.
- The extreme lack of strong female characters. Yes there's Tabitha but .. and the old characters we knew such as Ginny and Hermione seem to have become simple housewives that add nothing to the story. I miss a little female interaction within the friendships as well.
- Some things about the way the book ended
It will be interesting to compare this to the play coming out soon from actual JK Rowling about James Potter !
So here goes my rambly thoughts:
With the HP series being my favourite ever, I found myself being really critical of this book. More consciously noting things I did and did not like about this book and comparing it to the original serie. And obviously this can never be AS good as the original, but I've got to admit .. it was really pretty good!
To sum up some things I really appreciated:
- James was a really believable character being the "son of Harry Potter" and the struggles that come with that. I also enjoyed his relationship with Harry and liked Harry himself as well. I liked Ralph, Zane and Ted as well, although I would have liked to see a bit more fun.
- It didn't try to be too much like the originals, taking risks and introducing new things as well such as Technomancy class which I quite enjoyed (obviously didn't love all the add ons but it was pretty well done for the most part).
- The plot was interesting enough and I see a lot of potential for the rest of the series!
And some things I didn't like:
- The new teachers, or most of the adult characters anyway. Mcgonagall wasn't done very well in my opinion, I hated the addition of Benjamin Franklin (really, why??) and didn't appreciate Ginny, Hermione or Neville. I also still don't really see the point of having half the teachers being American. It just seemed an easy way to introduce the characters to the story and it wasn't really made clear what the American students were supposed to be doing the entire year.
- The extreme lack of strong female characters. Yes there's Tabitha but ..
Spoiler
She doesn't even turn out to be so important to the plot of the first book anyway- Some things about the way the book ended
Spoiler
I expected Merlin to be the "new" Voldemort but it seems like the author just needed a new Dumbledore to tell everybody what the hell to do. I didn't see why they needed him to pull of the trick with the muggle reporters either.It will be interesting to compare this to the play coming out soon from actual JK Rowling about James Potter !
BookRiot Read Harder Challenge 2021: Read a fanfic.
I genuinely don't know how to rate this one. I just started reading more fanfiction, so my experience is a little limited, but this one seems like it's solidly written. (It's certainly impressive at 400+ pages.) It was a joy to see some of the old characters and attributes of the Harry Potter series in this volume, and it was equally fun to get to know James, Zane, and Ralph. That being said, some of the plot threads got tangled, and for a world of magic there probably should have been more, you know, magic taking place.
I'm not sure I'll read the rest of them, but this was a fun foray into a new genre.
I genuinely don't know how to rate this one. I just started reading more fanfiction, so my experience is a little limited, but this one seems like it's solidly written. (It's certainly impressive at 400+ pages.) It was a joy to see some of the old characters and attributes of the Harry Potter series in this volume, and it was equally fun to get to know James, Zane, and Ralph. That being said, some of the plot threads got tangled, and for a world of magic there probably should have been more, you know, magic taking place.
I'm not sure I'll read the rest of them, but this was a fun foray into a new genre.