Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter Book 4 by J.K. Rowling

I didn't really follow the buzz surrounding the latest installment in the Harry Potter series. In fact, I'm ashamed to admit that I'd completely forgotten the book was coming out at all until somebody bought it for me, at which point I devoured the thing as if it were a chocolate-covered James Marsters. So I really hadn't heard the talk about this being a darker Potter, a more sinister read, and a whopping 734 pages.

Naturally I immediately despaired that I'd never finish the book in time to review it for this issue. I mean, it's really huge-assed. It's about double the size of any Potter book before it. But I shouldn't have worried because, like its predecessors, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is a book that demands that you read it, and I tend to finish books like that rather quickly. Who cares if I don't sleep for several days, right?

But this particular book, which covers Harry's fourth year at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, bears some marked differences from the first three books in the series.

For starters, there's the Quidditch situation. Quidditch is a wizard sport, played on broomstick, and played a very large role in the first three books, as Harry plays the game. In The Goblet of Fire, Quidditch is nearly absent entirely; it makes an early appearance in the book as Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the Weasley family all attend the Quidditch World Cup, but quickly disappears in favor of other, more exciting events at Hogwarts. Since Quidditch was terminally boring to me the first few times, I was happy to see it left out in this edition. Sure, it's fun and all, but I'd had enough of it, and Rowling was obliging enough to offer other events to grab the attention.

The aforementioned other events would, specifically, be the Triwizard Tournament, in which a champion from each of the major wizarding schools (Hogwarts, Beauxbaton, and Durmstrang) compete in magical contests for the Triwizard Cup and the glory of their school. This makes for quite a bit of international intrigue and interesting new magical challenges the like of which we haven't read before in Harry's world.

Among the smaller plots in this book is the arrival of a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Mad-Eye Moody, who may be friend or foe, and more trouble for Harry, Ron, Hermione, and all their friends at Hogwarts. Of particular bother is Rita Skeeter, a reporter who never seemed to have learned any of those pesky rules of journalism and who makes a nuisance of herself by printing articles that she just plain made up. She hangs around so long and causes so much trouble and I had an urge to transform her into a particularly rotund pig and then make sausages.

The main point I feel I should make about Goblet of Fire, though, is that this is a much darker book than its predecessors. While the other books had some creepy stuff in their own right (giant snakes, anyone?), this book takes the cake, and I vote it Most Likely To Give Your Children Nightmares. I also vote it Most Likely To Give Me Nightmares. There's some dark magic, murder, evil hooded men running about, and all sorts of wacky things to terrify and confuse the helpless masses, as well as the return of that evil phantom menace, Lord Voldemort, who's once again scheming to get Harry and reclaim his power. It all amounts to a superb book, but the final chapters, which are incredibly well done and spooky as all hell, may also be fairly likely to terrify the youngest readers in the Harry Potter audience. So keep in mind that if you make this one a bedtime book for the kiddies, enjoyable as it may be, you may be paying for their counseling later in life.

Re-Read Factor: This is the kind of book series that you'll be reading to your grandchildren. Hold on to those nice hardcovers, 'cause they're going to serve you -- and future generations of geeks -- very well.

Sequel Factor: There will be more books in this series, without a doubt. Rowling is just getting started.

Strong Chick Factor: Harry Potter is one of those unique book series where the sex of the character doesn't matter... they're all pretty well thought-out, and they've all got their flaws, and their strengths, and everybody's on equal footing.

-- Lisa Kincaid

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, published by Scholastic, is currently available in hardcover, audio cassette, and audio CD.

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