I've read all the comments on this and feel really guilty, but I was disappointed and emailed a friend who only reads completed works to warn her. Some of us actually want to know how it ends, whether or not it puts us off the story, so we can read it for the construction, not just the result.
Which is a fancy defensive way of saying, I can get all the arguments and it's in many ways a fine story, but not set up for anything BUT H/D in closure. I was admiring all the way through how Sarah, using no more words than JKR did, pinpointed her characters so much better. Ginny didn't have any more "on screen" time than in the books, but she was so much more real and well-rounded. same with the others. Especially Harry -- the guilt he has about Nagini, for example. And Ron and Zachariah's friendship -- amazing. Mostly offstage, and completely believable.
BUT I agree that UST was carrying almost all the tension -- the beating Voldemort really took second place.The ending really felt as though she'd gotten rather tired with the story and had to finish it quickly. I dreaded her doing that to DDG -- scrambling at an end can ruin the whole work retroactively, and I don't plan to read QOM again except as a study -- even more than I dread the lack of resolution. A general rule of thumb (I just made up) for stories is that what gets covered at the closure needs to be roughly equal to the attention it got paid in the rest of the story. so if 95% of the story is about H and D, I expect the climax to reflect that -- and NOT have to pick among the ashes looking for an ending.
I'm with you on this
Which is a fancy defensive way of saying, I can get all the arguments and it's in many ways a fine story, but not set up for anything BUT H/D in closure. I was admiring all the way through how Sarah, using no more words than JKR did, pinpointed her characters so much better. Ginny didn't have any more "on screen" time than in the books, but she was so much more real and well-rounded. same with the others. Especially Harry -- the guilt he has about Nagini, for example. And Ron and Zachariah's friendship -- amazing. Mostly offstage, and completely believable.
BUT I agree that UST was carrying almost all the tension -- the beating Voldemort really took second place.The ending really felt as though she'd gotten rather tired with the story and had to finish it quickly. I dreaded her doing that to DDG -- scrambling at an end can ruin the whole work retroactively, and I don't plan to read QOM again except as a study -- even more than I dread the lack of resolution. A general rule of thumb (I just made up) for stories is that what gets covered at the closure needs to be roughly equal to the attention it got paid in the rest of the story. so if 95% of the story is about H and D, I expect the climax to reflect that -- and NOT have to pick among the ashes looking for an ending.