The Last Podcast

(spoilers - if you care about Harry Potter, don’t read beyond the first paragraph!)

I just read the first couple of pages of the newest Harry Potter book, as well as the epilogue. Somebody managed to take photographs of every page of the book. It must have been an amateur, because he/she left the EXIF data in the JPG’s, making it a bit easier to identify the person, especially if he/she registered the camera with the manufacturer.

Now I am not one to condone piracy, but I am somewhat amused by this. This is the first time I actually picked up a Harry Potter book and I have to say, if this is what adults are reading these days, I bemoan modern literature. Just look at these f-ing dialogues - every single one uses the word ’said.’ Almost no variation whatsoever.

“Holy shit”, said Harry. “Oh no,” said his uncle.
“Well, I really f’ed up this time,” said Harry, in a loud voice.

This isn’t even good writing for children. And if you look at the epilogue, it ends with one of Harry Potters three children going off to Hogwarts. That’s right, the epilogue is set twenty years in the future and Harry Potter is now a father… just kill me, but if that isn’t a cop-out to write more Harry Potter books, I don’t know. And some dud called ‘Ron’ seems to live quite happily in the epilogue as well, married with Hermione and having kids as well… I thought he was supposed to die…

Does Rowlings really write this bad, or is this going to turn out to be one of the most brilliant hoaxes of the year so far?

Update: According to some commenters on SlashFilms, all versions out there right now are fan-fiction. I am not sure who to believe, but maybe Rowlings doesn’t write that bad after all? I personally think the version with the photos is real, but it is more of a hunch than anything else.

As to the leak itself, I agree with Duncan Riley here:

Whilst the validity of the hype surrounding Harry Potter may be subject to debate, what the leaking of the book does demonstrate is that the days of the mainstream media and publishers strictly controlling the dissemination of information has well and truly past; simply where there is a fan with a will, there is a way.

Oh, and the Harry Potter fans are all over the leak as well.