This book does not mess about.
Seriously, characters start dying just a few chapters in. I'll admit it, I'm a sucker for a book that's not afraid to knock off large segments of its cast. I like a good fictional bloodbath. This is especially true when it comes to the final book of a long-running series. Rowling has spent six books building up to a magical war against Voldemort, with the series growing progressively darker during that time. It's the sort of thing you have to deliver on, and Rowling delivers in spades.
That said, between the bloodbaths at the beginning and end, this book has a tedious middle. There's a lot to be said for the structure provided by the Hogwarts school setting: it means that there is always something happening, even when the main plot is not progressing. Whether it's classes or Quidditch or just interactions with the other students, there's a sense that the characters are always doing things. This book throws that structure away, and it flounders a little. There are long parts where it's just Harry, Ron and Hermione teleporting around England with no concrete direction, and it gets a bit tiresome.
The ending makes up for it, though. It really is an amazing conclusion, and I can't think of many long-running fantasy series that have done as well as this. All the themes are tied in, all the characters get a satisfying wrap-up, and just about every element introduced earlier in the books plays a part. I can think of very little I wanted to see that wasn't included. A series often lives or dies by its ending, and I think that Harry Potter will live for a very long time.
I have only two complaints, one exceedingly minor and one that is quite a bit bigger. The minor complaint is barely even worth mentioning, as it's more a thing I thought would have improved the ending than something that is a genuine problem. I was never satisfied with Harry becoming an Auror, and thought it would have been a much more fitting wrap-up to the series for him to take the mantle of teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts. Think about it: the position had six different occupants during the series. It was an ongoing subplot about the position being "cursed". Harry even starts teaching it, after a fashion, when he starts up the DA. Having Harry become a teacher would have wrapped that sub-plot up nicely, I think. But that's just me doing a little armchair-writing, trying to tell J.K. Rowling how to do her job. Because I'm so much more successful than her, you know.
The major complaint, and one I've voiced before, is about the house elves. That's a sub-plot that was introduced around the middle of the series, and the way it's dealt with is problematic to say the least. I don't want to get too deep into it (because I might write a whole essay about it in the future), but all I'll say now is that one of the very last lines of the last chapter is Harry hoping that Kreacher will bring him a sandwich. For a series that does so well in every other area, it's a shame that it stumbled here.
So where next? I'm in a re-reading mood, and I can see The Wheel of Time taking up an entire shelf of my bookcase. So I'm tackling The Eye of the World for the umpty-umpth time, but for the first time since the series finished. I'm really rather looking forward to it.
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