Harry Potter and the Veil of Mystery
Want to read the next Harry Potter book, now?
On July 16th, about three months from now, the sixth installment of the Harry Potter series is due to hit the bookshelves. It will entail the happenings of Harry Potter’s sixth year at Hogwarts, and is eagerly expected by its fans.
Too eagerly, in one case.
My brother decided that waiting wasn’t good enough, so about a year and a half ago, he started writing his own version of the sixth book in the series. When I learned of it, I was surprised–I hadn’t known that he could write fiction. When I read it, I was even more surprised–it was very well-written.
Now, there are a lot of people out there who write fan fiction (there are even Harry Potter web sites which feature this kind of fiction), but most of what is written is not of very high quality–plot, dialog, and prose can be downright amateurish in most cases–and most of them are in short-story form. Well, not this particular work. Not only is the writing of good quality, but the book is about a thousand pages long, longer than Rowling’s own work. It does not ramble, however–it follows a very specific and intentional storyline, picking up exactly where Rowling left off at the end of book five, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
The book has a very well-defined plot, carrying on a logical track stemming from the foundation of Rowling’s five books. There’s a lot of fun, as well as some serious introspection, and a good amount of philosophical thought on morality, relationships, life, and death, without being preachy about it. the book is not written for children, but for a more adult audience while still keeping true to the spirit of the Harry Potter stories.
And my brother didn’t stop at just one book–the seventh novel is also complete (or nearly so), finishing up the seven-year storyline, and again weighs in at about a thousand pages. Needless to say, he went on quite a writing binge over the course of the year or so it took to complete both books. He plans to write another Harry Potter book later on, picking up the story in Harry’s adult life.
You should know that if you have not read books one through five, this may be confusing as there is a lot of background to the story. But then, if you haven’t read the whole series, then you may not be interested in reading this anyway.
I have converted the chapters into PDF form, so if you have a Mac, you can open it with Preview (I recommend viewing in full-screen mode), or on a Windows machine, you can open it with Adobe Reader, which can also install a browser plug-in that allows direct reading in the browser.
I will be presenting the book in chapters, the first one today, and eventually, the whole book in one gigantic file. The first three chapters (“An Owl Gathering,” “A Summer’s Day at Hogwarts,” and “The Wizard and the Boxer”) weigh in at 415 KB for 96 pages. The format is B5-sized paper with 3/4-inch margins to accommodate easier reading on computer monitors; the text is in 12-point Garamond, 1.5-spaced, with chapter titles in the Harry Potter “Lumos” font. Soon I will create a special web page for the book and chapter downloads with a link to it in the right-hand column of this blog.
Any comments, feedback, opinions or suggestions are welcome. Here it is:
post edited 4/12/05
Loud enthusiastic applause.
Time to introduce myself … my name is Brad … and I’m a Potterholic.
I didn’t know anything about Harry Potter until the fourth book came out, after which I checked all four out of the library and read them. I liked them, but didn’t think that they were that super-fantastic … but found myself going back and re-reading parts (mainly from the climax of the fourth novel) once or twice.
And then the fifth book came out, and I was hooked. Rowling concludes the fifth book with a surprise element which quite raises the stakes in suspense and anticipation of what’s going to befall Harry in the final two installments of the series. With Harry growing up – he’s now sixteen – things are heating up on all fronts, drama-wise, romance-wise, good-guys-versus-ulimate-evil-wise and otherwise.
After reading the fifth book after it came out – what, two, two and a half years ago? – I was idling in anticipation of the sixth publication like most other readers when I ‘discovered’ the world of Harry Potter fan fiction. Incredible, some of the things that are facilitated so well by the internet. It almost overloads my mind sometimes when I think about how much authorial creativity and ability is spread out around the planet. And very humbling when I realise that I have zero writing ability myself.
As you say, there’s a lot of very amateurish, very poor fiction out there, but there’s also some really very good stories as well. One author remarked to me in an e-mail message that he felt like making a button with something like “Not all the best fiction is at Barnes & Noble” inscribed on it.
As I got into this Harry Potter stuff I grew a bit worried about my … obsession … (reading more and more of it as time went on) … after all, this is all kids stuff, isn’t it? Childrens literature? But in trawling the internet I’ve realised that there are a lot of adults into it as well, and in particular many of the (best) authors are oldies – writing for an adult audience, as you’ve said is the case for Veil of Mystery – so I’m no longer concerned that I’m crazy or wrong in the head, nor am I embarrassed … much … to acknowledge my fascination with it all.
There’s quite a lot of good stuff out there, and some truly excellent stories that I re-read time and time again.
I’m certain your blog readers will enjoy Harry Potter and the Veil of Mystery very much!
Brad
Brad, I stand corrected. Though I haven’t read much of the fan fiction myself, with a base so strong, there are bound to be good writers out there who dabble in the Harry Potter universe. Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound dismissive of the entire genre. I am curious about something, by the way, and as someone who knows the field, maybe you can answer the question: how many fan fiction works are novel-length? Are there many at all?
Also, would you mind pointing to the best two or three works out there that you’d recommend? I’m also looking forward to your comments on the Veil of Mystery!
OK Luis, you asked for it …
First up, there is absolutely nothing to ‘stand corrected’ about. I didn’t read any negative vibes or ‘dissmissiveness’ from your blog entry whatsoever. I might have been simply a bit enthusiastic in my post because I’m a relatively new HP fan and – with no-one to talk to about it here – it’s always nice to touch base with people on the ‘net about this topic.
I’m new to HP ‘fandom’, only discovered it about ten months ago. Also, for a while there, as I mentioned before, I was a bit worried that it would be unseemly for an oldie to derive so much enjoyment from all the HP fiction that I found out there. And I still feel that there is a slight ‘juvenile’ stigma attached to the words ‘Harry Potter’.
A few weeks ago I actually lowered down the barriers a notch and recommended “Brad’s favourite HP fiction” to a colleague at work. He left work 2 weeks later … I’m not kidding either :-(. So I’m back to only having people on the ‘net to talk to about my addiction.
A few things about HP fandom:
There are heaps of people on the ‘net who are really really into this, heavily and deeply. In about five seconds your blog may very well be inundated with expert advice and histories. So anything I say is subject to correction.
A lot – most? – of the HP fan fiction out there quickly crystalised into ‘ships’ – which ‘relationships’ would form in the actual books. There are a few well known web sites which store HP fan fiction and handle comments from readers, forums, etcetera, and many are characterised by the ‘ships’ that they will accept or refuse. I.e.:
– http://www.sugarquill.net – only Harry/Ginny, Ron/Hermione
– http://www.phoenixsong.net – only Harry/Ginny fiction
– portkey.org – only Harry/Hermione, Ron/Luna, others fiction
– checkmated.com – only Ron/Hermione, etc
Other well-known sites cater to all and sundry:
– schnoogle.com
– fanfiction.net
Some HP fans refuse to read any fiction that doesn’t cater to the ‘ship’ of their preference. I think some minor religious wars have been fought on these grounds. There are Yahoo groups and forums a-plenty which debate the eternal “Who is Harry going to end up with” issue.
There’s a whole ‘science’ to fandom writing, with the good writers having several ‘betas’ to check their stories and revise for errors before the fiction is published. Good web sites insist on betas and other such controls in order to have only high-quality stories archived there.
(I should note that the two ‘general’ sites I mentioned above don’t have such quality controls – as far as I know – and that a lot of bad/amateurish writing can be found there, along with the good stuff)
While a lot of fan stories out there are short stories or novellas, there’s a surprising number that are decent full-length efforts. schnoogle.com is supposed to store only multi-chapter stories.
Many of my favourite stories are still works in progress … one or two of them are really excellent. But for now I’ll paste in parts of the ‘recommended list’ that I sent my colleague, which consisted only of completed stories.
I should also point out that there are *heaps* of ‘rec lists’ across the ‘net .. in people’s blogs, in Yahoo groups, on the HP sites, etc. There’s entire LiveJournal communities dedicated to the various ‘ships’, etcetera. It’s really been fascinating for me in finding my way around, as this HP hobby has shown me how people are using the internet to collaborate and interelate.
Here’s an edited form of the ‘recs’ I gave my colleague. Remember, the descriptions are all mine, my impressions, and the authors might very well be upset with me if they read what is here.
These stories are all finished, although often the authors are working on sequels. You’ll also be able to look up the authors on the web sites to find all the other stories that they may have written.
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*** After the End ***
This is the ‘classic’, the seminal work of Harry Potter fiction, a big trailblazer from what I’ve heard. Written by two rabid fans during the big wait between GoF and OotP. It’s brilliant. It might be too ‘romantic’ for you. But this is a classic in Harry Potter fan fiction.
I’ve never ever come across any story that starts off so powerfully. The very first sentence was written to grab you and not let you go. I basically couldn’t put this thing down the entire weekend I started it until I was about a third of the way through, after which I was forced to stop because it got to be *too* ‘powerful’ for me.
Anyway – ‘After the End’, written by Arabella and Zsenya:
http://www.sugarquill.net/read.php?storyid=619&chapno=1
It’s brilliant. Please read at least the first few chapters.
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*** Anything written by ‘Arabella’ on sugarquill.net. ***
One of the two authors of ‘After the End’, this author really pulls out all the stops on the ‘romance’ side. She’s written some nifty stuff – it’s all under her author’s page on the Sugar Quill:
http://www.sugarquill.net/index.php?action=profile&id=1
Quickly:
o The “Hermione, Queen of Witches” series is very clever, a complete retelling of the first four books from Hermione’s perspective. I’ve only read the first one so far. Lightweight, fun to read, might be good for your youngest. As well as you!
o The rest are all short stories, one-shots, except some lead on from others; there’s two or three that go through “Ron & Hermione’s first kiss” sort of stuff, etcetera.
o Two real tear-jerkers that I loved that dealt with Harry and Ginny were “On Dry Land” and “Palmistry”. This lady really knows how to imbue emotional punch into every word she writes.
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“Harry Potter and the Power of Emotion” by melindaleo
http://www.phoenixsong.net/symphony/story.php?cid=1560
Not deliberately crafted to put you through the wringer romance-wise but still a strong Harry/Ginny element (they get together through the course of the story but it’s VERY feeling and well done). Good evil-Voldemort-plan and climatic battle.
The sequel is currently a work in progress. I think this is one of the best stories of the year; some masterful use of the prophecy for maximum pathos. Read it!
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“The Awakening Power” by Sib
http://www.phoenixsong.net/symphony/story.php?cid=1143
Another Harry/Ginny romance, written a *little* bit more simply; might be another good one for your youngest. Nice main plot of Harry gaining power, several battles and attacks, the usual big fight against Voldemort in the end. The romance is simpler and more overt, in a “Harry thinks gee Ginny looks pretty today” way, but I still found it very good/nice. Perhaps the most ‘obvious’ of all the romance stuff I’ll give you; if you don’t find this one palatable the others may still be able to slip in under your radar.
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“Letters of Summer” by Kokopelli
http://www.phoenixsong.net/symphony/story.php?cid=53
This is very good, and one you might like. It’s got a Harry/Ginny element but it’s written in a more pragmatic, matter-of-course fashion that doesn’t grind the ‘romance’ into the reader’s face. A whole different flavour to the stories above which are more obvious in dealing with the romance side of things. This also is very strong in how it brings in whole new characters (to train Harry) and is one of the best stories I’ve read.
If the stuff above has proven to be too ‘sugary’ for you, still try this one; the romance component is only a sub-story and a lot less ‘offensive’ (!).
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All the stories written by “Dr. T”
http://www.schnoogle.com/authorLinks/DrT/
This bloke is a history professor somewhere in the USA. He’s very prolific and has written a lot of stuff; this page will list MOST, but not all, of them. All of his novel-length stories.
His writing is COMPLETELY different from the stories I’ve listed above; the writing is a bit less polished, the brush strokes are VERY broad, he covers entire months/years in a single seven-page chapter. I’ve always said that he writes in a “Boys Own Special” sort of way, if that makes sense to you. Lots of gung-ho action.
All that said, I still enjoy reading his stories very much. No romantic sap, mostly action stuff. A lot of it reads the same – most of the novels have the same sort of brush strokes – Harry trains up, gets powerful, kicks Voldemort’s arse. But deviations that are fun to read.
There’s no *detailed* sex, but it is mentioned in places – I didn’t like it much, thought it was a bit unnecessary – and the Hogwarts kids are only 16/17 – but I just skipped or went ‘ewww’ and let myself enjoy the rest. Just enough sentences here and there about various sexual practices to make me suggest you NOT let your kids read them (before you).
The best – for me – is “Dumbledore’s Army”. It’s very much gung-ho and you might find it completely unrealistic, but I still found it good fun. Harry trains the DA to support him and defend Hogwarts in the final battle.
All the stories by Jeconais
http://www.phoenixsong.net/symphony/stories.php?psid=1
One of the most-mentioned stories in fandom for pure humour/comedy content is this fellow’s “This Means War!”. You’ll love it. There are other really funny stories out there, but I’ve listed only the titles and don’t have the URLs handy right now. But “This Means War!” is a classic. It’s not finished, but it’s a good read up to the end that’s there thus far.
The other stories are good too. He’s written more stuff that isn’t listed here; let me know if you like him and I’ll give you the rest.
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All the ‘Luna’ stories by michelle_31a
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/439695/
There’s only one author on the internet who has written Luna ‘right’, and that’s michelle_31a. It may prove to be too ‘sappy’/soft/romantic for you, but I’ve really enjoyed her work. It’s almost all short stories, except for a couple of multi-chapter stories – still short, three or five chapters only – and then one long novel-length story.
Most of the short stories are comedy pieces, and I think you and the boys might get a real kick out of them. A few are serious stories:
o Torment and Turnips – quite a tear-jerker, one of her most poignant works. 5 chapters, I think. Read it Trev; there’s no kissy-kissy romantic stuff in this, just pathos and despair over how Luna is treated and how the Gryffindors try to support her during her trials. Brilliant. For me, anyway.
o Revelations – another one that plucks the heart strings, for me anyway. Just a single-chaptered short story.
o Luna’s Friendship – a very nice short story that kicks off right from the end of OotP. Just a nice effort, probably one of the first of hers I read.
o Luna’s Year – her novel-length effort. Must have been one of her first works, I reckon. I hold it to be flawed – her Luna is delightful, and there are some very moving passages – romantic stuff (very low key) or friendship/support orientated – but I found the whole ‘Voldemort’s latest evil plan’ plot to be clumsy and she makes Harry out to be an incredible dill, just so Luna can look good in comparison. Plus a few other complaints. But there are some very nice parts. Might be too much of a slog for you to go through it all to get the good bits.
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Stories by draco664 – particularly “Apprentice Potter”
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/360895/
I’m trying – even though this is just a quick memory dump of what’s topmost in my mind – to give you something of a ‘spread’ over what’s out there. “After the End” and co for the romance/soap opera stuff, Jeconais’s stories (“This Means War!”) for good humour, the Luna stuff for both humour and cuteness (some of michelle_31a’s short stories are VERY funny), and “Letters of Summer” by Kokopelli for a more straightforward story.
The best story of this author’s is “Apprentice Potter”, a work currently in progress; however the author has said that he’s nearing the end, and he updates regularly. It’s yet another type of HP story – this is ‘angry Harry’ – really, really angry – at odds with Dumbledore and the idiots of the ministry. Written in first person too.
I felt that it took 3-4 chapters before the story hit its stride, so please persevere with it for at least that long before you give up on it. Some swearing, so censor it for your youngest.
He must have written “Betrayal of the best kind” and its sequel “Midnight Duel, Midnight Love” before OotP, as it has Harry fall in love with Cho, but I think they were still good reads. Very easy style of writing, and a Harry who takes out Death Eaters right left and centre on his own after being abandoned by the rest of the wizarding world. Another flavour of HP stories.
“Snapes Worst Nightmare” is a collection of a few one-shots which are really quite amusing.
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“Never Alone, Never Again” by Bored Beyond Belief
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/206866/
This story – Never Alone, Never Again – apparently won awards back in the early days of fan fiction in the period while people were waiting for OotP. Yet another sort of story – poor Harry is being tormented by the feedback from his scar, and the Ministry/Fudge are after him. Excellent warmth in how the Weasleys, Sirius and Remus try to support him. A really good story, but very *dark*, with Harry being tortured, maybe not suitable for your youngest.
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Author Ruskbyte
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/226550/
This bloke has a real varied selection:
o Flying without a broom – currently unfinished, but had me almost laughing out loud – which would have been bad, given where I was reading it – when I came across it. Pretty bloody funny.
o The Quiet Place – a nice one-shot. Humourous, but a pleasant, albeit way-out story.
o Keep it Simple and Issues of Trust and Faith – a couple of nice, warm, fluffy little Harry/Hermione one-shots. Go on, read them, you know you want to.
o The Order of the Phoenix and The Well of Shadows – two novels, very much ‘alternate universe’, diverging from the way JKR went with OotP, but still well written. Very gung-ho action orientated, lots of big magic and battles, the kids might like them. I did!
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Cassandra Claire
http://www.schnoogle.com/authorLinks/Cassandra_Claire/
This fan fiction author is well known. There’s a large subset of fan fiction which has Draco joining the good guys – these are three well-written stories which have that. The third is still being written. Lots of action and heaps of humour – the author is a fan of British humour like Black Adder and Monty Python, and the stories read much like them, lots of quips flying back and forwards, very snappy. I enjoyed reading them, but have forgotten a lot of the details – it would have been about a year ago.
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Dance with me Harry by Aerie22
http://www.schnoogle.com/authorLinks/Aerie22/Dance_With_Me_Harry/
A nice, pleasant story, again with some ‘moral discussions’ embedded. A very gentle, young Harry. No sex or anything but some clumsy teenage wondering about love. And one of the best chapters on ‘Harry discovers he’s more powerful than normal wizards” that I’ve ever read.
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This is a brilliant short story – read it in one sitting. The ending may be a bit too sugary for you but the base concept and ideas drawn from it are fascinating.
http://www.astronomytower.org/authors/bjh/AFTE.html
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Two short stories by the same author:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2234227/1/
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2073486/1/
The second one is three chapters long and is a nice detailed introspection into the relationship between the three.
I have to admit that up until the end of February, I was aware of fan fic, but pretty dismissive of it……I just finished my 2nd chapter of 2nd story (no need to share what tv show it is based on, I would be laughed at;) ). It is amazing how quickly it sucks you in and makes you want to do more More MORE!
Can’t wait to read your brothers:)
Aw, come on Sean, tell us! What TV show? You can let us know, we won’t tell anyone …
Seriously, I was amazed when I visited http://www.fanfiction.net to see all the tv shows on which they have stored fan fiction. Oodles of them! All the TV shows I could think of from my youth. The Harry Potter fiction outnumbers them by several orders of magnitude, but still, I hope one day to take a stroll down memory lane and pick a few out from here and there, see what they’re like, see if there are any high-quality stories outside of HP.
I know there is serious Harry-Potter-level fandom attached to ‘cult’ shows like Buffy and Angel, but the plethora of series listed on fanfiction.net was really amazing.
Brad
Hey Luis,
Just happened upon your blog while bored at work in India. I am a huge Harry Potter fan and agree completely with your brother, the wait between books is really too much to bear. Having said that I did check out the first three chapters of “The Veil of Mystery”. I must ask you to convey my regards to your brother for undertaking the arduous task of writing an entire novel to pick up where the book 5 left off. I enjoyed his style of writing, and also as you said, the way his story progresses, suggesting a well-thought out plot behind the words. He has added a new dimension to the character of Harry Potter, and in fact made him a little different to JK Rowlings portrayal. My interest has certainly been piqued and I’m on edge waiting for the rest of the book to be presented. I’m a fast reader so do you think you could put all the chapters up as soon as possible? I would recommend too that your brother get to work on writing an original novel of his own making, I’m sure he would obtain a following no less faithful than that of Rowlings.
Thank You,
Rithvik
I haven’t had a chance to read this yet…however, would it be possible to put up either a .txt or a .lit for those of us who usually read by the light of our PDAs?
Bryan
Bryan: see the new post, http://www.blogd.com/archives/001234.html, which now includes a plain-text version of the whole book. The file is 2.2 MB, though–is that too big for your PDA?
I cant believe you didn’t give The Order of the Phoenix/Well of shadows a better say By Ryskbyte
/www.fanfiction.net/s/826742/1/The_Order_of_the_Phoenix
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1020773/1/The_Well_of_Shadows
Both have like 3000 reviews In my opinion the best fan fictions out there and better than J.K’s I hope that the writer finishes Shattering of souls he/she’s only uploaded 1 chapter for the 3rd in an excellent series Iv been giving fan-fic a try my self and also have some unfinished stories on fanfiction.net–www.fanfiction.net/~ghostreview have a look there no where near as good one sticks close to Jk’s work the other If just nothing but a power mad me making Harry ludacrisly powerful plus I coped RyskByte and used the power of the Order because I thought it better that a bunch of peps Dumbledore brought together plus there funny 😛
Not to say my opinion of your storeys sorry to say I read all your faves that you suggested and almost forgot, I’m sorry to say that I both liked it and disliked it I like quite a few other who have read it Liked the story line but found It dealt with to much love I found that it was to sickeningly sweet and that I was scrolling past a lot of it so I was probably missing lots and It ruined a very good story that I’m very sorry to say but I stopped reading before I got half way through, I just wish That I could fairly Bata read it and edit a lot of the mussy stuff out, And re-Publish it but unless you said I could that would not be fair though I do like the fact you made It a Harry/Ginny slash I like the cutey myself lol I know your story/Or your brothers is probably better written than mine but maybe you could check mine out and see what you think, Also about yours/or your brothers lol, You tend to only have them laugh and not giggle chuckle or much of that, Well that don’t matter to much Its mainly all the hugging and stuff that ruined it for me, Plus the Dursley’s turning over a new leaf and allowing the floo connection it seemed hard to believe plus If Voldy cant find the Dursley’s house how did Draco he shouldn’t be able, In fact Ron and the Twins from HP and the Chamber of secrets shouldn’t have well thats JK’s so I shouldn’t moan.
well thanks for reading my review: And I hope you publish It on your blog site, And I hope ya don’t dismiss it because I haven’t read the full book I am actually planning on giving It another read and Maybe editing it for my own personal enjoyment, I do like romance even though I am a guy in his early 20’s but I don’t like sappiness and I felt that It was some what out of character please at least e-mail me we can have a chat or some thing about our faves send my apologies and regards to the books writer best wishes….
Ghostreview