Are we back here for discussing Harry Potter, now that the Book Club is active again?
My current houseguest pointed out a difference between the British and American versions of HBP that is suggestive, and I don't think it was mentioned here during the big spoilerific discussion.
In the British version (pp 552-3 if you are keeping track), Dumbledore says:
'Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewise. Your father is safe at the moment in Azkaban...when the time comes, we can hide him too...'
while in the American version (same scene, but pp 591-2) he says
"He cannot kill you if you are already dead. Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewise. Nobody would be surprised that you had died in your attempt to kill me -- forgive me, but Lord Voldemort probably expects it. Nor would the Death Eaters be surprised that we had captured and killed your mother -- it is what they would do themselves, after all. Your father is safe at the moment in Azkaban...when the time comes, we can hide him too..."
I think it's definately important, but I have no idea how. We mention it, I'm pretty sure, during dicussion somewhere
I just finished The Constant Gardener, and there's some spycraft in there too.
I
loved
the book. That man can turn a phrase, well aside from the subject matter and plot. Damn.
I cannot forgive Tepper for Fresco. It wasn't just sexist, it was facile and beyond anvils. I still want to reread her YA stuff, but her adult stuff is pretty poisoned for me now.
ita, I plan to read the book: yours is the second recommendation I've had lately, and the movie was excellent.
Yay! Now go see the movie and tell me if it will make me mad. Or if it stands enough on its own that I won't get nitpicky.
This is just damn cool. Keep your bookpile online for all to see! Like Flickr for books. Kind of.
I just came across this line in a review of the new Takeshi Kovacs book (
Woken Furies
):
On Kovacs's home plant, Harlan's World (an allusion to Ellison, perhaps?), for example, still-functioning Martian satellites automatically destroy any aircraft that rises above a certain altitude.
Did I miss something? I didn't think those satellites were Martian; I thought they were an artifact of the fighting back in the Quellcrist Falconer days?
Of course, it took me three tries to not type the new title as
Woken Furries,
so there you go.
If you like
Constant Gardener
it's worth trying any of the '70s le Carres: They're more institutional, but have the same sense of outrage and detail.
I have a terminology question -- how do you describe the PoV when you get to hear every character's thoughts? Is that third omniscient? Is it completely unrelated to third omniscient?
I recently read Deception On His Mind which was much edgier than the TV episode (Detective Lynley), but IRRITATING. We get to hear everyone's thoughts, but no one thinks of anything until the police have discovered it. So we're in the minds of people with secrets, but they handily never think of these secrets until Havers works them out.
Yeah, that's third omniscient, although I always just call it omniscient.
I'm reading her newest right now, With No One as Witness, and really, really not liking it. Sob. Elizabeth George used to be one of my all-time favorites.