Read an excerpt from Christopher Paolini's new book!
We know that this is a Harry Potter site, but we like the Inheritance Trilogy too (and there isn't much Harry Potter news to be had right now!). Christopher Paolini is currently in the middle of writing the third and final installment of said trilogy, but he's taken time away from his writing to generously share with us a portion of the new book (currently unfinished and untitled). You can read the excerpt
here in our forums (you don't need to be a registered member to read it, but you do need to be registered if you'd like to join in the discussion about it), or you can read it at the
Alagaësia site where it was originally posted (you do need to register to read it there). Here's a little teaser for you (though it is far longer; it's posted in its entirety in the forums):
Chapter Three: Light and ShadowSaphira kneaded the soil beneath her feet. Let us be off! Leaving their
bags and supplies hanging from the branch of a juniper tree, Eragon and
Roran
clambered onto Saphira’s back. They wasted no time saddling her; she
had worn her tack through the night. The molded leather was warm,
almost hot,
underneath Eragon. He clutched the neck spike in front of him--to steady
himself during sudden changes in direction--while Roran hooked one thick
arm
around Eragon's waist and brandished his hammer with the other.
A piece of shale cracked under Saphira's weight as she settled into a
low crouch and then, in a single giddy bound, leaped up to the rim of
the gulch,
where she balanced for a moment before unfolding her massive wings. The
thin membranes thrummed as Saphira raised them toward the sky.
Vertical, they
looked like two translucent blue sails.
"Not so tight," grunted Eragon.
"Sorry," said Roran. He loosened his embrace. Further speech became impossible as Saphira jumped again.
When she reached the pinnacle of her jump, she brought her wings down
with a mighty whoosh, driving the three of them even higher. With each
subsequent flap, they climbed closer to the flat, narrow clouds that
extended east to west.
As Saphira angled toward Helgrind, Eragon glanced to his left and
discovered that, because of their elevation, he could see a broad swath
of Leona
Lake some miles distant. A thick layer of mist, gray and ghostly in the
pre-dawn glow, emanated from the water, as if witchfire burned upon the
surface of the liquid. Eragon tried, but even with his hawklike vision,
he could not make out the far shore, nor the southern reaches of the
Spine
beyond, which he regretted. He had not laid eyes upon the mountain
range of his childhood since leaving Palancar Valley.Obviously this hasn't been edited at all so it's still a bit on the rough side, but still, it's very nice of Christopher Paolini to allow his fans a glimpse at the much-awaited conclusion to his maiden trilogy. If only some other authors (hint hint JKR! lol) were willing to do this!
3 Weekend Birthdays for HP actors
Julie Christie (Madame Rosmerta) turned 66 on Saturday. Emma Thompson (Prof. Trelawney) and Emma Watson (Hermione Granger - as if you didn't know) turned 48 and 17 respectively on Sunday. We wish them well.
WB Fails to Understand HP Fans - AGAIN
Warner Brothers has ordered David Yates to cut the running time of the movie OotP due to another 3 hour movie doing poorly at the box office. Once again they fail to realize that HP fans want a movie that represents the 700 page book. And we realize it will have to be long. Those that aren't fans aren't going to see it anyway. So WE are the ones who need to be apeased. Let's hope the cut scenes will be on the dvd when it's released.
Some readers are actually rooting for Harry's death?!?
Well of all things, eh? I was surfing around looking for news today (not much as usual--more articles about Imelda Staunton as Umbridge, a couple about that guy Jesse Metcalfe from Desperate Housewives taking over Daniel Radcliffe's role in Equus when his run is finished) when I found this (outrageous!) article on the esoteric site
BellevilleNewsDemocrat.com:
While my family was immersed in last weekend's resurrection party, all I could think of was death. "Deathly Hallows," to be specific. As snow nipped the spring right out of the air, I was talking with my 12-year-old niece about the final book in the Harry Potter series, which will be released in July.
Ironic, considering Easter Sunday, is her stance that the great white-bearded wizard (Dumbledore, not Gandalf) will be resurrected just in time to save Harry, and provide a major assist in defeating Voldemort. She's of the "riding off into the sunset, happily-ever-after" camp.
Meanwhile, I'll be disappointed by anything short of a very Harry death. I do think Harry will end up defeating Voldemort, but his life will be lost while saving the world.
It's been a long time since I cracked open my Joseph Campbell, but I believe the hero's journey has to reach a point where he (or she) must make the ultimate sacrifice in order to triumph. The archetypal examples go back forever in literature and myth, but for me it began with Spock.
In 1982's "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" everyone's favorite Vulcan nerve-pinches Bones and proceeds to repair the damaged warp drive, fatally irradiating himself in the process.
I've been bred to expect death-as-conclusion to a hero's quest. Now, I'm talking here about lasting death, the big sleep, so long and farewell and don't forget to write. After all, living forever makes for boring storytelling, but death gives the story of life and sacrifice a lasting meaning.
Now baby is all grown up, and I realize I was cheated. Just like on the soaps, no one really dies for good. At least, not as long as there is more cash to squeeze out of the resurrected corpses of pop-culture icons.
Heroes will be killed by nemeses, but it's the almighty buck that brings them back in cheapened tales where nothing much is at stake. Except, perhaps, in Harry Potter's case. I have a feeling that when the boy wizard falls under some obscure, unforgivable curse of the Black Arts, he won't be getting up again.
And it's for the best. If he isn't resurrected (even in prequels or spin-off tales), and the audience feels a lasting loss, that's when the magic really begins.
The stories might continue in our imaginations, but when a hero dies, he's better off dead.
To this story I give a big HMPH! Read the full article here.
Invisibility Cloak is now a reality
From
Radio New Zealand:
Scientists in the United States have finally come up with a workable design for an invisibility cloak, like the one used by the fictional Harry Potter. Physicists worked out the complex mathematical equations for making objects invisible by bending light around them last year. Now a group of engineers at Purdue University in Indiana has used those calculations to design a relatively simple device that may one day be able to make objects as big as an airplane disappear. The design calls for tiny metal needles to be fitted into a cone like a hairbrush, at angles and lengths that would force light to pass around it - making everything inside the cone appear to vanish because the light would no longer reflect off it. The still-theoretical design will be published this month in the journal Nature Photonics.
Source
Librarians Swear an Oath of Secrecy
From
INSnews.org:
With the advent and anticipation of the last Harry Potter book, Scholastic has imposed some strict rules for libraries. Among those rules is an order to limit the number of staff members who process the books and numerous books on tape and CD that library branches have ordered. The publisher also is requiring libraries to provide a list and contact information for each branch manager. The Davis County library system, which has seven branches, has already ordered 150 books and may order up to 250 copies, said Davis County Library director Pete Giacoma. There are already 500 holds for copies of the book through the library system."Scholastic intends to monitor the 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' laydown very closely and appreciates your complete cooperation," states a contract from the publisher that Giacoma received March 28. Other libraries that have ordered the book received similar contracts.On Tuesday, Giacoma half jokingly told the Davis County Board of Commissioners that the contract is "full of very ominous language." Failure to keep "Deathly Hallows" under wraps until July 21 could get libraries blacklisted from future embargoed titles, the contract states. But that's not all. "We acknowledge and agree that any such violation will cause irreparable harm to Scholastic and the author, J.K. Rowling, and that monetary damages will be inadequate to compensate for violations," the contract states. If monetary damages would be inadequate, the commissioners wondered what would be adequate. Later, Giacoma told the Deseret Morning News that he takes the contract seriously, although the contract may also be part of the book's marketing tactics, which he called "brilliant."Read the article in its entirety
here.
Now OotP Video Game Screenshots
WorthPlaying.com put up several new screenshots and features for multiple platforms today. If you're interested in the Wii, XBox 360, PS2, or GBA versions of the game, check out the shots and details
here.
Severus Snape: Good or Evil?
Jamie Smith Hopkins of the Baltimore Sun wrote an interesting article today about Harry Potter fans and their love/hate relationship with the character Severus Snape.
When J.K. Rowling's publishers announced that the final book in the Harry Potter series would hit stores this July, the agonizing began in earnest. Would she kill him? Could she kill him? Was there any point in reading if she did?
No, not Harry Potter.
Severus Snape.
For a surprisingly large number of Potter fans, mostly adult ones, the fate of the intrepid boy wizard — you know, the one the books are ostensibly about — isn't nearly as interesting as what will happen to his ex-professor. The double-crossing Death Eater. Murderer of the beloved Headmaster Dumbledore. Greasy-haired, yellow-toothed, cuttingly sarcastic and, in the words of his creator, "deeply horrible."
Rowling doesn't seem to understand the attraction. At the 2004 Edinburgh International Book Festival in her Scottish hometown, she asked her audience a bit plaintively, "Why do you love him?"
"It's bad-boy syndrome, isn't it?" she guessed.
Well, yes.
And no.
Oh, sure, there's a school of thought that blames all the Snape love on hormones and Alan Rickman, the actor with the seductive voice who plays him in the movies — the fifth of which, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," is due in theaters in July. Rickman comes with a fan base, and whoever decided to put him in that repressively buttoned-up Victorian get-up seemed to understand how that would affect adult women. We do seem to be Snape's biggest fans.
But give us a little credit. Imperfect characters are compelling. Both men and women like the heroic-but-dark Batman. And the sardonic House of the eponymous television series. And Lex Luthor, at least the way he's portrayed on TV's "Smallville," where — for a while — he had yet to cross the line into irredeemable villainy.
Snape, in any case, held some readers in thrall from the beginning.
"I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death," he says to his new students in the first Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," and we thought, cool. A closet poet, our Snape, and frequently funny in an awful, I-can't-believe-he-said-that way. People identify with this guy stuck in a hated job, who never gets credit for his good efforts, who is irritable, quick to judge and deeply human.
"We know what it is to be lonely, angry and unappreciated — to struggle to get through the day, surrounded by idiots," a fan named Hologhost wrote on the fan site MuggleNet.com, adding: "I think we want Snape to succeed."
The commentary is much longer than what's been quoted here. To read it in its entirety, visit the Los Angeles Times hosted site CalandarLive.com here.
We've uploaded many new images from the Order of the Phoenix movie into our gallery. Check them out
here.
Robby Coltrane, or Hagrid to HP Movie fans, celebrated his 57th birthday yesterday.
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