t's 14-year-old Harry Potter's fourth year at the wizard's academy called Hogwarts. For all his budding magical powers, though, there are many things beyond his control. For starters, his parents were murdered when he was a year old by a rogue wizard named Voldemort. Additionally, when he's not boarding at the school during term, Harry lives with his unpleasant aunt and her family, who once gave him an old hanger for his birthday and who used to make him sleep in the closet under the stairs. Topping it off, he hardly ever gets to see the only other relative he has--his godfather, Sirius--because Sirius is constantly on the run, having been falsely convicted of betraying Harry's parents to the murderous Voldemort.
But Harry does experience a great deal of happiness during a typical twelvemonth. Back at Hogwarts for his fourth year, he links up again with his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. The school terms are usually filled with a studious workload: Blast-Ended Skrewts, pus-filled bubotubers, jelly-leg jinxes, and an inter-dorm competition that includes Quidditch, a sport played a-broomstick. This year, though, the regular dorm competition is suspended because for the first time in 100 years there will be a Triwizard Tournament, in which one champion from each of three prestigious schools will compete for the glory of the home institution.
Because it's rather dangerous (previous champions have sometimes died), the tournament is supposed to be closed to any student under 17. But somehow the safeguards invested in the Goblet of Fire (an inanimate, impartial judge that selects the competitors) falter. It chooses underage Harry to represent Hogwarts. This is not at all a lucky break for Harry. There have been signs that Voldemort is on the move again, and he's already tried four times to murder Harry. Harry's selection may be another attempt.
But potential loss of life is a faraway specter for the typical teen, wizard or no. Harry's mostly concerned that his being selected has put an irreparable rupture in his friendship with Ron. Harry also has a crush on an older student, who of course has a thing for the most handsome, skilled and well-liked wizard at the school, Cedric Diggory. Magic may be a joy, but it's not making Harry's life any easier, and it may be entirely powerless against certain foes and commonplace dangers.
A very enjoyable sequel
To dispel any worries about "sequel-itis" (in which successive installments of a franchise get suckier and suckier), it must be firmly stated that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is as good as any of the volumes that precede it. Consistency is emerging as Rowling's forté, an artful consistency of style and detail from the first book through the fourth and latest.
Favorite friends (the Weasley family, Professors Dumbledore and McGonagal, Sirius, Hagrid) and beloved enemies (Draco Malfoy, Voldemort, Wormtail) return, making an enthusiastic re-acquaintance for Potter devotees and an easy introduction for first-timers. In fact, this is one of Rowling's tremendous strengths. The freewheeling banquet that is the world of Harry Potter is excessively detailed and choreographed, but the author is a skilled host. She never bores returning readers but also never shortchanges new readers of backstory.
In any Harry Potter book the plot is more like a deliciously enticing warren of obscured passageways than an overmanicured hedge maze. Even for those who might be content to read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for atmosphere and characters alone, the plot remains as an underlying structure that gets fully illuminated in the final, galloping chapters.
Although Rowling seems destined to join the gallery of immortals graced by Lewis Carroll and C.S. Lewis, there are some nits to pick. She has repeatedly been accused of letting a dollop of unthinking stereotypes mar her books. And while many folks, tired of what they call the "P.C. police," snarlingly disagree, this is nevertheless a truth. It certainly doesn't spoil the fun or the worthiness of any of the books, but it's there. Almost all the figures in positions of power are male, whether they are close to the storylines or just scenery. And while it might be reasonable to create a wizardly English world without a minority in sight (perhaps England is not the melting pot that America is), when minorities do pop up, they are usually nothing more than exotic names like "Cho" and "Pavrati." However, in the case of minority characters, it's possible to ascribe their flatness to Rowling's one-coat treatment of most of her tertiary characters. The further one gets from the Harry epicenter, the more cardboard the characters become.
But these are small criticisms (although it is sad to think that this series, which will help shape the minds of a generation, has so few strong and compelling female characters). Rowling has created a world not intended only for children, even if it is primarily directed at them. In this light, many critics have pointed to the book's length, asking whether it is really a children's book. This question is a red herring. The book is 700 pages long because that's how many nouns, verbs, commas and periods it takes to tell this tale. Rowling knows that children are not put off by length when the story is this good and the world this magical.
