Ok, so I've just finished reading all four books of Lois Bujold's The Sharing Knife series. And having done so, I've concluded that I wasn't actually reading a fantasy series. I was reading an SF series with fantasy trappings.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.
( No real spoilers, but just in case... )

If you click on this link, you'll find a report on an interview with J.K. Rowling where she goes into a bit more detail about what happens to everyone mentioned in the epilogue to Deathly Hallows.

But you really shouldn't do it until you actually read the epilogue unless you enjoy spoilers. :)

daisy_knotwise and I have been kicking Deathly Hallows about now that she's finished it. In a completely spoiler-free fashion, I've arrived at an observation about Slytherin House, catalyzed by some additional discussion over in allisona's journal:

Gryffindor and Slytherin are both intended to produce leaders. It's just that they produce different kinds of leaders, both useful in the right circumstance. The leaders from Gryffindor are the boss that you love to work for, while the leaders from Slytherin are the boss that you hate to work for.

Sometimes you need Winston Churchill, but other times you need George Patton to get the job done.

I'm done.

I'm not sure if I've posted it before, but it's 7/7/7 today and book 7 of the Harry Potter series is due out shortly, so the occasion's reasonable.

There's a lot of folks who've theorized that a piece of Voldemort's soul is residing in Harry, Voldemort having inadvertantly created a horcrux in Harry when he murdered Harry's parents. And there's a lot to be said for that theory, I think.

Of course, unless the horcrux is destroyed, Voldemort can't be killed. So Harry Potter must die in book 7 if Voldemort is to be killed.

But no one said that Harry Potter had to stay dead.

Clinical death might well be enough to banish the bit of Voldemort's soul from Harry. And there are a number of candidates for the job of reviving Harry. Hermione, Ron, Snape...

By way of Captain's Quarters, the ending to Harry Potter as imagined by David Chase -- more or less.

Attention, cadhla:

By way of Instapundit, I discover World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie Wars, which is due out next Monday...

In an interview, J.K. Rowling suggests that Harry might be killed in the final book of the series. She notes that two characters end up dying who she hadn't originally planned to have die, while one gets a reprieve. She also mentions that there would be deaths would be among "main characters".

Personally, I think that Harry, Ron, and Hermione (and Ginny, for that matter) all get out alive. I expect that the casualties will be McGonigle and Hagrid, while the one getting the reprieve is Snape.

Of course, I could be wrong...

Personally, I doubt this. But the actor who's been reading Harry Potter in the US audio books says he thinks that Rowling intends to kill off Harry in Book Seven.

Hey, we've gotten a review of The Cunning Blood, Jeff Duntemann's first novel that we're releasing at WindyCon this weekend.

There's a problem when betting on a contest where the result's already known to someone, but it's supposed to be a closely-held secret. The closely-held secret can slip out, because there's money to be made. I've seen reports related to Survivor, but today the target is the upcoming Harry Potter book where a major character is supposed to die.

Possible spoilers here for Harry Potter #6...

(And, if they're right, it's just what I would have predicted.)

Update: And a newspaper article with more spoiler info here.

With many people waiting for the release of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", there's going to be lots of speculation about who the other character in the title is. I can hardly refuse to contribute to the pile. :)

What if the "half-blood prince" is a new character, a first-year student who is heir to the throne of England in the Potterverse? Certainly he'd be a bigger celebrity than Harry, which would be a novel experience for Harry at Hogwarts. And imagine the discomfort of Malfoy and crew at having to deal with the half-breed.

It's probably all rubbish, but it would be interesting.

Cards lose to the Astros, 3-0, on a 3-run homer in the bottom of the ninth and go back to St. Louis trailing 3 games to 2.

In other news, I finished The Wizard of Karres and can officially report that I liked it. :)