[Anders]

This is the order they were released in:

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (26 June 1997) (titled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2 July 1998)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (8 July 1999)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (8 July 2000)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (21 June 2003)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (16 July 2005)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (21 July 2007)

In which order do you rank the books? Which is your favourite book and why?

[Bree]

Prisoner of Azkaban. I have no idea why whatsoever.
Order of the Phoenix.
Goblet of Fire.
Chamber of Secrets.
Deathly Hallows.
Half-Blood Prince.
Philosopher's Stone.

[Anders]

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Perhaps you could say about all firsts, that it's both a beginning and a frame for the future. Nevertheless, this book included so many unique ideas, and in very few pages, created a world so elaborate, that it set the standard for everything that was to come. For every single novel that followed it, I would wait to hear the most recent story about the Harry being at the Dursley's, visiting Diagon Alley, taking the Hogwarts express, gathering in the great hall for the sorting process, taking various classes with various teachers, playing in the annual Quidditch cup, arguing with his friends, his bad relationship with Draco, his relationship to Hagrid, Snape, McGonagall, Dumbledore and the Weasley's. Whenever something important was left out of the later novels, I felt cheated. If she could fit it into the short first novel, surely it would fit in the ever growing later novels. Apart from the day to day life of the characters, there is always a mysterious plot (which the movies focus almost exclusively on, but that's for another thread). While this one is not the best, it is still well thought through, and makes for an exciting last part of the book. However, if Harry Potter is pure children's literature, it's best represented by this book. It's lighthearted, it's fun, and it's a quick and easy read.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
The Chamber of Secrets easily holds the prize for most confusing plot, at least while you're in the middle of reading it; the diary, Moaning Myrtle, Ginny, Lockhart, it's just a mess really. When the climax also feels forced, the novel suffers greatly. Nevertheless, Rowling did try to change things around a bit, and had the boys take a flying car to school, made the new teacher (Lockhart) deeply interested in Harry, and even more interested in himself, added a lot more information about Voldemort, added house elves, and about the creation of Hogwarths. Therefore the novel adds a lot of spice to the HP universe, but suffers from a poor main plot.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
There are lots of reasons why this is a great novel, but there are also a few big negatives. Never had the book been more elaborate, never so dark, and Sirius Black adds a lot of tension to the story. Lupin is another character that fits in perfectly. The book starts of cracking, with perhaps the best Dursley's opening ever, an early visit to Diagon Alley, and a great Hogwarth's Express train trip. In the book, the main plot is weaved out carefully, and is explained well, however in the movie it's all a bit confusing, but again, that's for another thread. What I really don't like about this book is the time traveling. I feel it does not fit in at all, it completely flops the situation upside down, and since it worked so well, it's odd that we did not see anyone use it for any of the other novels. If we choose to accept such an easy solution (Star Trek style), the novel is excellent. It has some of the best character development, new magic, Quidditch, beginning, middle and end to the story, of any of the novels.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
This is where Rowling really starts to stumble, but saves it by making the novel much longer and more comprehensive than the previous ones. Unlike the movie, which nearly only focuses exclusively on the competition between the students (the Triwizard Tournament), there's also room for much of the regular stuff we expect from a HP novel. Unfortunately, Rowling chose to cancel the Quidditch cup this year. A concept I find ludicrous, because surely both the Quidditch cup and the Triwizard Tournament could happen in one year. However, she finds time for a completely uninteresting Quidditch World Cup, and ends up sending the biggest star of the tournament, to Hogwarth's for the year. The conclusion to the plot is simply poor. While the maze and the confrontation with Voldemort, are both amazing, the part about Moody is so poorly written that it makes me cringe.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Wow, Rowling hits the jackpot, especially for experienced readers. It's as if Rowling took all the best from the first four novels, and crammed it into one big one. It includes all the regular school and family stuff, including a stay at Sirius' place, which is perhaps the cosiest part of any of the HP novels. The novel is also spiced up with some heavy school and national magic politics, and Harry teaching the other students about dark arts. The plot is masterfully written, and ends in a raging climax. While the movie was very good, it practically shamed the book in my opinion, but I'll get into the details of that some other time. My favorite Harry Potter novel.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Very interesting, and an easy read. It still falls a bit short after the magnificent Order of the Phoenix, but there's lots of stuff here with Harry visiting the the Weasley's, and large plots involving Dumbledore and Snape. Romance takes center stage like it never has before, and Ron steps into the limelight in more ways than one. I'm looking forward to the movie, I think this novel will fit very well in movie form. The plot is strong, but sometimes it leaves you wanting a little more. Yet, the climax is intense, and one of the best of the entire series. It leaves the reader guessing, and builds up the next (and last) novel in the series, the Deathly Hallows.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
I miss a lot of the regular series staples in this book, but there's no question that it's a real gem. Never have the stakes been higher, never has the HP series been so dark. Rowling pulls at all the stops here, and the climax seems to go on forever, eventually leaving the reader wanting even more. We get an answer to all our questions, and thankfully it all makes sense, just like the previous two novels (and the first). The plot is superb, and is very well written. The small amount of Hogwarth's time leaves it just below the Order of the Phoenix in my personal taste, but the Deathly Hallows is the book that made me feel strongest.


My order:
Order of the Phoenix.
Deathly Hallows.
Half-Blood Prince.
Philosopher's Stone.
Prisoner of Azkaban.
Goblet of Fire.
Chamber of Secrets

[Power to the J]

My order, from favorite to least. Keep in mind, I've only read each book once (not exactly a mega-fan) and I'm also 15, so my memories of the book may be fonder since I read the first in kindergarden.

1) Prisoner of Azkaban. This was dark, especially for an 8-year-old, and I liked the tone, and the new characters introduced. Looking back on it now, I kinda hate it, but I do with all of them, so...

2) Sorcerer's Stone. This was fun to read and I remember wishing that I could go to Hogwarts so badly, instead of my elementary school.

3) Goblet of Fire. I've always enjoyed fiction about games and events or whatever you want to call what it was in GoF. I got real caught up in that story.

4) Chamber of Secrets. If my memory is correct this book had a bit of mystery in it, no? Anyway, assuming I'm right, this book had all of the correct ingredients that led to my enjoyment, except for the end. I hated that, even then.

5) Half-Blood Prince. By the time I read this I would've rather went and hung out with Rand al'Thor or Frodo Baggins than Harry Potter, but I still enjoyed this book. I liked the death of a major character (although S. Black is my all-time favorite character in the series, it was not as major as the death of Gan--Dumbledore) and also the teenage feeling of the H-man.

6) Order of the Phoenix. I liked the Ron/Quittich (spelling?) subplot, but I thought that the DA stuff was lackluster and the dialog was especially horrible that book, IMO. My memory's kinda fuzzy, but that sticks out in my mind. Lot's of monolouges or something, right?

7) Deathly Hallows. The last book in the series is also my least favorite. I had grown weary of the deus ex machina endings, and this was the worst of all. The battle at Hogwarts was disappointing, and the fact that Harry, Hermione and Ron all survived made me sick. The epilogue was the icing on the cake, and I re-read A Game of Thrones as soon as I finished this. Don't get me wrong, as a children's series I think that HP is great, but as the series "matured" it got worse, IMO.

Anyway, that's my two cents.

[molybdenum]

I thought the series got better as it went along for the most part. I found that Rowling tended to mature the series with her intended audience, (with the exception of the fifth book, which I didn't like at all.)
My order:

1) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Okay, I realize the ending and epilogue was a bit cheesy, but most of the book was very good, with the scene where Harry walks into the forbidden forest for the last time being the best scene in the entire series.

2) Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
A fantasitic book, I thought the idea of horcruxes made a lot of sense. Left enough questions to have me anticipating the next book.

3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
The best of the early books. I loved the amount of explanations given in this book, and was very surprised (I think, it was a while ago) at the exposure of Peter Pettigrew.

4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
This was a fairly good book as well, as it contained possibly the best ending, and had a sufficient amount of obstacles for Harry without being overkill.

5. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Good enough to get me into the series, but seeming inferior compared to future books.

6. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
I didn't really like this book. Looking back, I can't remember why not.

7. Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix
This book almost turned me off the series. Absolutely nothing went right for Harry. This is an example of an overkill of obstacles. Luckily, the movie was much better

[Brahm_K]

1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: I think this book acts as a great transition into the darker side of Potter, and, unlike in later books, the plot doesn't completely slip out of Rowling's hands- in fact, from a storytelling perspective, its very well done, with some excellent twists and turns, a lot of fun, and is short enough and early enough into the series that you don't get tired of the repetitive Hogwarts structure. It also introduced two of Rowling's best characters, Lupin and Sirius Black. 9/10

2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Okay, this one is definitely overlong. Its main plot is pretty underwhelming, especially in the conclusion, wherein we have a badly written action scene and one of the most anti-climactic big plot twists (gasp! Harry will be the one to defeat Voldemort!). But the side plots involving Umbridge, the Ministry of Magic and Dumbledore's army are fantastic, injecting life into the Hogwarts plotline and just generally being interesting. And although Harry is a bit too over the top in this one, at least he's actually interesting for once. 8/10

3. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: The funniest of the books (particularly the early Dursley chapters)- this one's written with a type of whimsical British humour thats largely absent from the rest of the series. It sets the Hogwarts template, which is a magical experience in this first book- and while I think that Dumbledore is exposed as a negligent idiot by the end, it does have a good climax. 7.5/10

4. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Okay, the main plot is complete balls in this one- we have your nice and contrived "everyone thinks that the protagonist is behind murders due to a series of unlikely coincidences" which I hate so much. But it still has some of the fun of book 1; the Hogwarts formula is still relatively fresh, and Tom Riddle is a better villain than Voldemort could ever be, even granting his ridiculous obsession with anagrams (how anyone ever took him seriously after that reveal, I'll never know) and his growing fondness for exposition. 6.5/10

5. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince: This one qualifies as pretty meh for me, with little that is memorable to redeem it. It doesn't have much or a structure of buildup- it goes "Hogwarts routine, which seems boring and irrelevant at this point, some exposition with Dumbledore, more Hogwarts, Draco is weird, more exposition, climax out of nowhere!" Its not a bad book, its just a pretty boring one where not much happens and which has deep structural problems. Its also overlong. 6/10

6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Just an average book in about every way. A few excellent scenes, the end of the Hogwarts strycture and some good atmosphere built up during the first half of the novel don't make up for a complete train wreck of a climax, during which everything is clumsily written, the plot and magic become convoluted beyond belief and everyone delivers expositional speech after speech. Voldemort is permanently rendered a lame villain. Meh. 4.5/10

7. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Everyone loves this one, I know. It has a great ending, I'll grant it that, and the best written death of Rowling's career, which is odd, because Cedric is such a minor character. On the other hand, the Hogwarts routine is really starting to get boring- but whats even worse is the that the main plot of the book is 500 pages of completely unnecessary filler. The Triwizard tournament remains one of the most convoluted, stupid and totally unnecessary evil plans, and is nothing more than an excuse for Harry to ride a broom against a dragon. I also agree that the Moody plot twist is just poorly thought out. And it is in Goblet of Fire that the major, overall flaw of the series emerges: Rowling wants to be serious and write books for adults, but her world simply cannot support it. When Harry Potter was whimsical and fun, it didn't matter that the wizarding world didn't make much sense and would collapse within seconds in the real world- but for the rest of the series, Rowling wants us to take her world and story very seriously, which I just can't do. Goblet of Fire gets a 3.5/10.

Well, thats my order. Its an enjoyable series, I think, that got significantly worse as it became more serious, with my personal exception of Order of the Phoenix.

(Edited to fix some grammar)

[Anders]

You make some good points Brahm_KI. While I love both the various twists in the Hogwarths routine and the Deathly Hallows, and I'm nowhere near as negative as you are about the series, I still agree on many of your main points. That the Goblet of Fire and the Chamber of Secrets have poor plots, that the death of Cedric is well written, that the Half Blood Prince novel is lacking some structure, that the Philosopher's Stone is the funniest novel, that there's some trouble with the ending sequence in Order of the Phoenix, and that Lupin and Black are interesting characters, that help make the Prisoner Of Azkaban a better novel, and the whole series grow.

Where we disagree most seems to be the Deathly Hallows. I miss the Hogwarths Structure there, which makes the first half of the book slightly lacking, but I think it gets better when it gets closer to the end, and large parts of the ending sequence was very well written. I also disagree with Power To The J that wanted more deaths. I think more than a fair share of important characters died already, and I don't feel that more death would have been much help at all.

[Brahm_K]

Where we disagree most seems to be the Deathly Hallows. I miss the Hogwarths Structure there, which makes the first half of the book slightly lacking, but I think it gets better when it gets closer to the end, and large parts of the ending sequence was very well written. I also disagree with Power To The J that wanted more deaths. I think more than a fair share of important characters died already, and I don't feel that more death would have been much help at all.

Fair enough- there's definitely something people enjoy out of the Hogwarts structure, and if I hadn't gotten bored with it, I'd probably enjoy the series as much as you. I also agree that there was enough death in Deathly Hallows- what would have been more important, in fact, would have been for Rowling to give those deaths some meaning (I'm thinking particularly of Lupin and Tonks.

[Anders]

Agreed, those could have been done much better.

[JLM]

Here is my order from most favorite to least favorite:

The Goblet of Fire I enjoyed this book because it introduced other students from other countries. Until I then, I hadn't thought there would be other witchcraft and wizardry schools. It was neat to read about the other schools traditions, and I also liked the fact that the author put in a love triangle there. :D

Prisoner of Azkaban My favorite part is how he blew up his aunt. LOL!

Chamber of Secrets I enjoyed reading how everyone that believe he was the decendant of Slytherin (i think I misspelled that...lol!) was very scared of him.

The Sorcerer's Stone (as it's known here in the U.S.) I think this book plays an important role because it cleverly caught our attention. The introduction was exactly how I love to start a new book; interesting enough and to the point. Many books go on and on about the setting of the book and never get to the main character and I tend to lose interest easily.

Half-Blood Prince
Order of the Phoenix and Deathly Hollows These were my least favorite because I felt that so many things were left out and unexplained.

Over all, I liked the Harry Potter series. :D