The Waste Lands

Title : The Waste Lands
Author : Stephen King
Reading Dates : 29 July - 1 Aug 2009

Dark Tower Series. The Waste Lands is the third installment in The Dark Tower series. The books in the series are listed below :

• The Gunslinger
• The Drawing of the Three
• The Waste Lands
• 
  
  
  Wizard and Glass
• Wolves of the Calla
• Song of Susannah
• The Dark Tower

Summary of The Waste Lands. The story starts with Roland and Jake each slowly losing their minds due to the paradox Roland created in The Drawing of the Three. Since Roland killed Jake's would be killer, Jake could not have died on Earth and met Roland in Mid-World. Yet, the both of them have 2 sets of memories. One in which they meet and the other which they didn't. This paradox is resolved only when Jake reunites with Roland by means of a portal temporarily created between both worlds. Not long after Jake arrives in Mid-World he befriends a billy-bumbler, a creature of Mid-World, whom he names Oy. Oy joins Jake and his companions as they follow the Beam from the Portal of the Bear, one of 12 portals ringing the edge of Roland's world. The Dark Tower lies where the beams cross. Following the beam, Roland and his ka-tet arrives in Lud where Jake is promptly abducted. After a harrowing chase, Roland rescues Jake with Oy's help and reunites with Eddie and Susannah Dean at Lud's train station. The story ends with their group riding Blaine, an insane train intent on suicide, through The Waste Lands.

My Reviews. Interesting take on time-travel, but strange that Roland and Jake should still remember instead of simply remembering the "new" past. My favourite parts are those relating to Roland, Jake and Oy. Jake's faith in Roland's promise, Oy's loyalty to Jake and the glimpses of Roland's protectiveness towards Jake is what makes Roland and Oy's chase after Jake the most exciting part of the story. Kind of cute and funny when Oy scrambles to sit on Jake's shoes while the group is travelling on a invisible train out of Lud.

Related Links.

• The Dark Tower
• Amazon's Stephen King Page
• The Road to the Dark Tower by Bev Vincent, Stephen King

The Drawing of the Three

Title : The Drawing of the Three
Author : Stephen King
Reading Dates : 27 July - 28 July 2009

Dark Tower Series. The Drawing of the Three is the second book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series released in 1987. The books in the series are as below :

• The Gunslinger
• The Drawing of the Three
• The Waste Lands
• 
  
  
  Wizard and Glass
• Wolves of the Calla
• Song of Susannah
• The Dark Tower

Summary of The Drawing of the Three. The Drawing of the Three starts less than 12 hours after the end of The Gunslinger. In it, as Roland travels along the Western Beach in Mid-World further north, he finds three doors, gateways to New York in our world at different times. At the first door, Roland finds himself in the mind of Eddie Dean, a heroine junkie in 1987. Roland, who is deathly ill after being bitten by lobster-like creatures in Mid-World, kidnaps Eddie to Mid-World. At the next door, Roland brings back a wheelchair-bound civil rights activitist, Odetta Holmes from the 1960s. But Odetta is more than she seems. Odetta has an alter-ego unknown even to herself, the hate-filled Detta Walker who is intent on doing no less than killing Roland and Eddie. In the third door, Roland walks in as Jack Mort is planning to kill a boy. Roland recognizes the boy as Jake, whom he had met earlier in The Gunslinger. Jake had ended up in Mid-World for a short time after dying under the wheels of a car in his world. Roland prevents Jack Mort from killing Jake thereby creating a paradox which would only be resolved in The Waste Lands. Roland chooses to end Jack Mort's life after using him to replenish his dwindling ammunition supplies and medicine he requires to heal himself. In the end, Roland successfully draws the final third of his ka-tet, Susannah Dean, an amalgam of Odetta Susannah Holmes' and Detta Susannah Walker's personalities.

My Reviews. There are many reasons why I enjoy this book best of all Stephen King's books I've read. The description of Roland's experiences in our world can be quite hilarious. The idea of the first penicillin robbery ever or his description of Jack Mort's mind as a Mortpedia was quite funny. Then, there is Roland's outrage when one of the police officers after Jack Mort fires his gun without regard of innocent bystanders. This coming from a man who is quite capable of mercilessly gunning down an entire town is strangely honourable. Roland might consciously choose to sacrifice innocents but he would not forget them. The only fault I found with the book was Odetta/Detta's introduction. Too long and garbled to be necessary for the story. But all in all, this remains my favourite among Stephen King's books.

Related Links.

• The Dark Tower
• Amazon's Stephen King Page
• The Road to the Dark Tower by Bev Vincent, Stephen King

The Gunslinger

Title : The Gunslinger
Author : Stephen King
Reading Dates : 24 July - 26 July 2009

Dark Tower Series. The Gunslinger is the first of a series of 7 fantasy books written by Stephen King as part of the Dark Tower series. King's Dark Tower series was published between 1982 and 2004. The books listed in reading order are as below :

• The Gunslinger
• The Drawing of the Three
• The Waste Lands
• 
  
  
  Wizard and Glass
• Wolves of the Calla
• Song of Susannah
• The Dark Tower

Summary of The Gunslinger. In The Gunslinger, we are introduced to Roland Deschain, the last of the gunslingers, a kind of a knight in the world he inhabits. The book recounts the last weeks of Roland's pursuit after nearly 12 years of chasing the man in black. We meet Roland as he crosses a vast desert on the trail of his quarry and learn of the ruthlessness Roland is capable of. The gunslinger had gunned down an entire town of strangers as well as sacrificed a young boy under his care in order to attain his goal. At the end of a seemingly endless night where the man in black speaks of the Dark Tower, Roland awakes to find the man whom he had known as Walter dead while he himself has aged 10 years. Roland has but made a start on the road to the Dark Tower.

My Reviews. The most compelling part of the Dark Tower is not Roland's quest but the man himself. What I find most amazing is that while our protagonist, Roland is a man willing to sacrifice a child he loves for the attainment of his own goals, I still see him as a hero to be admired and not a villain capable of great evil. And that has been the greatest draw the Dark Tower series holds for me. That the author is able to convey to the reader that Roland's actions are not only acceptable but necessary no matter the cost.

Related Links.

• The Dark Tower
• Amazon's Stephen King Page
• The Road to the Dark Tower by Bev Vincent, Stephen King

Legends

Legends
Edited by Robert Silverberg
Reading Dates : 19 Jul 09 - 23 July 2009

Legends re-released by Voyager books in 1999 is a compilation of 6 short stories written by and set in the fantasy worlds created by authors Stephen King, Terry Goodkind, Orson Scott Card, Robert Silverberg, Ursula K. Le Guin and Raymond E. Feist. The original collection contained 11 stories listed below :

• The Little Sisters of Eluria by Stephen King
• Debt of Bones by Terry Goodkind
• Grinning Man by Orson Scott Card
• The Seventh Shrine by Robert Silverberg
• Dragonfly by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Wood Boy by Raymond E. Feist
• The Sea and Little Fishes by Terry Pratchett
• The Hedge Knight by George R.R. Martin
• The Burning Man by Tad Williams
• Runner of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
• The New Spring by Robert Jordan

The Little Sisters of Eluria by Stephen King is set in the Dark Tower world prior to the start of Roland of Gilead's story in Gunslinger. The story starts of with Roland Deschain arriving at the near-deserted Western-like town of Eluria. Immediately after his arrival, Roland is attacked by a group of mutants, creatures who had once been human, and nearly killed. Upon waking up, Roland finds himself in a strange hospital tended by a group of sinister sisters. Weak from his injuries and the drugs the sisters are feeding him, Roland finds his only ally in Jenna, the youngest of the sisters. With Jenna's help The Gunslinger escapes but not before witnessing the murders of 2 other patients, whose blood had been drained by the vampiric sisters. In the end however Jenna cannot escape what she is. The morning after they escape, Roland wakes to see only Jenna's clothes and what she was disperse as a thousand bugs.

Thoughts on The Little Sisters of Eluria. While a knowledge of the Dark Tower series is unnecessary for reading The Little Sisters of Eluria, it would be more satisfying. There are references to Roland's past which would only be answered by reading the Dark Tower books. But the story itself does not have any bearing on Roland's search for the Dark Tower. As a fan of Stephen King's Dark Tower series, the Roland in this story is not yet the man we will meet in the Dark Tower books. For the most part, Roland is only an observer of the events which occurs around him. He is less aware of his surroundings, which lead to his easy capture, and in the end he was the one being rescued.

Stephen King's The Dark Tower series :

• Gunslinger
• The Drawing of the Three
• The Waste Lands
• Wizard and Glass
• Wolves of the Calla
• Song of Susannah
• The Dark Tower

Stephen King books with connections to his The Dark Tower series :

• Bag of Bones
• The Stand
• The Eyes of the Dragon
• The Shining
• Rose Madder
• Cell
• It
• Insomnia
• The Mist (from Skeleton Crew)
• Lisey's Story
• Salem's Lot
• Black House
• Low Men in Yellow Coats (from Hearts in Atlantis)
• Desperation
• From a Buick 8
• Everything's Eventual (from Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales)

Debt of Bones by Terry Goodkind, prequel to the Sword of Truth series starts with Abigail from Coney Crossing requesting a special audience with the First Wizard Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander. Abby demands that the First Wizard repay a debt owed by his father to her mother by saving her family and the villagers of Coney Crossing who have been taken prisoner by Panis Rahl's D'Hara troops. Although Zedd knows it is a trap, he agrees to accompany Abby back to her village where he is attacked by a Mord-Sith, a creature capable of turning a wizard's power back against him. With the help of his ally, the Mother Confessor, Zedd captures the Mord-Sith instead and buys time for Abby to attempt a rescue of her family. Abby fails to find her family but instead saves Zedd's daughter, long held captive by the D'Hara. Just before Zedd unleashes his magical assault, his daughter is seemingly recaptured and brutally murdered when he refuses to surrender. At the same time Abby, who has realized that by asking Zedd to spare Coney Crossing she is condemning many more to the tyranny of the D'Hara, agrees to Zedd's plans to destroy the D'Hara with the villagers who are being used as shields. However, like the Trickster his companions calls him, Zedd never intended to destroy the D'Hara, only to create a deadly barrier to halt the D'Hara invasion. He has not only managed to save the villagers of Coney Crossing, but created an illusion of his daughter's slaughter in order to prevent his enemies from attempting to harm his daughter again. In the end, it is also revealed that it was Abby who owed Zedd the debt. Though Abby's mother Helsa never explained it to Abby, Zedd knew that the debt was owed by Abby to Zedd instead of the other way around. Zedd's father had risked his life to save Abby and her mother, Helsa.

Thoughts on Debt of Bones. Though the story started out a bit slowly for me, by the end of the story I was intrigued by the world the story is set in but especially by the character of the First Wizard. The idea of a prodigy among wizards or a selfless one who would choose to sacrifice himself for the needs of his people is not new but what makes him compelling is his ability to do the unexpected and deceive even his closest companions.

Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series :

• Wizard's First Rule
• Stone of Tears
• Blood of the Fold
• Temple of the Winds
• Soul of the Fire
• Faith of the Fallen
• The Pillars of Creation
• Naked Empire
• Chainfire
• Phantom
• Confessor

The Grinning Man by Orson Scott Card. The Grinning Man is set in an alternate history America where folk magic works. While Alvin Maker and his apprentice Arthur Stuart are travelling through Kenituck, they come across Davy Crockett in a grinning contest with a grizzly bear. Crockett wins this first battle against the bear and leaves. Alvin and Arthur then follow a river downstream to the town of Westwille where they enjoy the temporary hospitality of the miller, Rack. After a week, Alvin who has been tracking Crockett and the bear leaves to find them. Earlier, Alvin had secretly interchanged a part of Crockett's and the bear's nature. This time, the bear wins their grinning battle and Crockett becomes the servant of a grizzly bear. Once back in Westwille, Arthur tells Alvin how the miller has been cheating the farmers all this while. Alvin secretly helps the farmers to turn the tables on the miller and leaves with Arthur. In the end, the farmers invites the grizzly bear and his servant, Davy Crockett to take over the miller's position upon Alvin's recommendation.

Thoughts on The Grinning Man. While I found the story interesting enough, there is no inclination to read more. Neither the mention of heartfires or the art of making in the tale stirred enough interest to warrant a second look.

Orson Scott Card's Tales of Alvin Maker series :

• Seventh Son
• Red Prophet
• Prentice Alvin
• Alvin Journeyman
• Heartfire
• The Crystal City

The Seventh Shrine by Robert Silverberg starts as a murder mystery which the current emperor or Pontifex of Majipoor, Lord Valentine decides to investigate himself. Valentine is concerned as he fears a conspiracy to upset the peace between humans and Piurivars better known as Metamorphs or shapeshifters. The rebuilding of Velalisier, an ancient Metamorph metropolis, was among the projects initiated to address the grievances of the long oppressed natives of Majipoor. The victim, senior Metamorph archaelogist Dr Huukaminaan's dismembered body parts had been left at a sacrificial altar known as the Table of Gods at Velalisier. The ritualistic killing leads the Pontifex to suspect the murderer is a Metamorph. In the end Valentine finds that the murderers was lead by a khivanod, a Metamorph high priest named Torkinuuminaad, in a misguided attempt to safeguard the sanctity of the seventh shrine in Velalisier. Among Piurivars, sea dragon also known as water kings are worshipped as gods. Thousands of years ago, 2 sea dragons had offered themselves as a sacrifice to the Piurivars of Velalisier to be slain. Not knowing this, the simple Piurivars of outlying areas had attacked and destroyed Velalisier. To this day, the killing of the water kings is remembered wrongly by the Metamorphs as The Defilement. Torkinuuminaad murdered Dr Huukaminaan to prevent the opening of the seventh shrine where the remains of the sea dragons are kept. Valentine commands that Torkinuuminaad be taken into custody to be judged by the Metamorph queen and the seventh shrine be sealed out of respect for Metamorph beliefs.

Thoughts on The Seventh Shrine. An interesting read but my sympathies are more with the Metamorphs. Many of Valentine's human advisors still harbor a prejudice for the metamorphs for their past rebellion, though the metamorphs had been wrongfully displaced for thousands of years. I wonder if the accord reached by Valentine with the current Piurivar Queen will last.

Robert Silverberg's The Majipoor Series :

• Lord Valentine's Castle
• Majipoor Chronicles
• Valentine Pontifex
• The Mountains of Majipoor
• Sorcerers of Majipoor
• The Seventh Shrine (novella in Legends)
• Lord Prestimion
• The King of Dreams
• The Book of Changes (novella in Legends II)
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice (short story in Flight)

Dragonfly by Ursula K. Le Guin. This story is about Dragonfly of Iria, a girl born in the world of Earthsea. Goaded by failed sorcerer Ivory, Iria travels to Roke hoping to find out what she is from the wise man there. Although the Rule of Roke forbids the teaching of women, the Doorkeeper allows her entry and calls for a meeting of their Council to decide. The majority of the Council refuses to relent and asks Dragonfly to leave the Great House of Roke. However, Azver the Master Patterner and Kurremkarmerruk the Master Namer each asks her to spend time with them in turn outside of the House. In time, Dragonfly learns that when the Council gathered in the past to elect a new Archmage after Archmage Ged lost his power Azver made a prophecy of "a woman on Gont". In the end, they could neither find nor elect a new Archmage but the Master Summoner, who had summoned himself back from death seems determined to make himself the new Archmage. At the end of the story, Dragonfly returns the Master Summoner to the dead and reveals herself to be a dragon. She leaves to seek her true name among her kind but promises Azver to return if summoned.

Thoughts on Dragonfly. In order to enjoy this story, I think the reader needs to have read the Earthsea books. This story seems to be hinting at greater events in the past and yet to come but does not explain the incidents within the story itself. The most perplexing question to me was how did Dragonfly or Irian come to realize what she was ?

Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series :

• A Wizard of Earthsea
• The Tombs of Atuan
• The Farthest Shore
• Tehanu : The Last Book of Earthsea
• The Other Wind

The Wood Boy by Raymond E. Feist is set during the Riftwar saga. In the story, Dirk recounts to Borric the Duke of Crydee how he came to be dragging 2 corpses out of the woods. Dirk had been a servant of Lord Paul of White Hill when the Tsurani first invaded Midkemia. After Lord Paul surrended to the Tsurani, they lived a relatively peaceful if hard life under Tsurani rule for some months. Late one night Dirk was awoken by strange sounds and was later attacked himself. Waking up the next morning, Lord Paul and all the other servants dead. Believing that Lord Paul's bodyguard Drogen committed the murders in order to kidnapped Lord Paul's beautiful daughter Anika and steal his treasures, Dirk tracked them down and killed Drogen. Anika who was awoken by the sounds of their struggle, threw herself upon Dirk and was impaled on the knife in his hands. Dirk explained that he believed Anika to be innocent and had been tricked into eloping with Drogen. The Duke who is acquainted with Lord Paul and his daughter privately believes that Anika was the true mastermind. He chooses however to keep this knowledge from Dirk and arranges to find a new home for Dirk.

Thoughts on The Wood Boy. Unfortunately the story here was too short to have made much of an impact. Based on past experiences, I would say that Raymond E. Feist's best stories are those intertwined with warfare and the brotherhood of soldiers.

Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Cycle :

Riftwar Saga

• Magician
• Silverthorn
• A Darkness at Sethanon

Empire Trilogy

• Daughter of the Empire
• Servant of the Empire
• Mistress of the Empire

Krondor's Sons

• Prince of the Blood
• The King's Buccaneer

The Serpentwar Saga

• Shadow of a Dark Queen
• Rise of a Merchant Prince
• Rage of a Demon King
• Shards of a Broken Crown

The Riftwar Legacy

• Krondor : The Betrayal
• Krondor : The Assassins
• Krondor : Tear of the Gods

Legends of the Riftwar

• Honoured Enemy
• Murder in LaMut
• Jimmy the Hand

Conclave of Shadows

• Talon of the Silver Hawk
• King of Foxes
• Exile's Return

Darkwar Saga

• Flight of the Nighthawks
• Into a Dark Realm
• Wrath of a Mad God

Summary on Legends. Overall, I'd say the book is an interesting read. But if you're going to read works by these authors, you should go ahead and buy the novels rather than this anthology.

Black House

Black House
by Stephen King and Peter Straub
Reading Date : 14 Jul 09 - 19 Jul 09

Black House. Black House by horror fiction maestros Stephen King and Peter Straub was released in 2001 as a sequel to The Talisman. The hero of Black House is Jack Sawyer, a retired Los Angeles homicide detective who becomes entangled in an investigation into a series of child murders. Although reluctant at first, Jack soon realizes that only he may possess the skills necessary to stop the killer, owing to a long forgotten adventure in his youth.

The Talisman. 20 years ago the then 12-year old Jack Sawyer, with the ability to travel between our world and a parallel world called The Territories, embarked on a quest to save his ailing mother and her twinner, Queen Laura DeLoessian of The Territories. In healing them, Jack held a magical object, The Talisman which has left its mark on him. It is precisely this remnant of The Talisman's power contained within Jack Sawyer which is needed to destroy the demon-possessed serial killer known as The Fisherman.

The Dark Tower. While pursuing The Fisherman's trail, Jack meets Sophie, the new Queen of The Territories who is the love of his life and is reunited with an old friend, Parkus. From Parkus, Jack learns that The Fisherman's latest abductee, Tyler Marshall must not at any cost be allowed to fall into The Crimson King's hands. Tyler Marshall is perhaps the most powerful Breaker ever born, telekinetics with the ability to hasten the fall of the Dark Tower where The Crimson King is imprisoned.

My Reviews. My only complaint about the book is the opening chapter and the occassional parts where the story is written as if we are hitching a ride on a crow. I feel that these parts have been made unnecessarily wordy and are a distraction from the flow of the story. The best parts are when Mr King and Mr Straub is simply telling a story about wonderful characters such as Jack Sawyer and his best friend Henry Leyden. Honourable, dependable Jack and wise Henry. I look forward to the next chapter in Jack's saga for it seems his story may not be done.

Related Post. To read more on the The Talisman, the authors and a bibliography of their books, go to The Talisman.

My Harry Potter Posts

My Harry Potter Posts.

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• My Review of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
• My Review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
• Care of Magical Creatures Lesson Notes
• Potions Exam Questions
• History of Magic Homework : Compose an Essay on the role of Harry Potter in defeating the Dark Lord

Interesting Harry Potter related Sites or Posts:

• Veritaserum
• 5 Ways People are Taking Harry Potter Waay Too Seriously
• Chapter-by-chapter summaries for Harry Potter books
  

Harry Potter Fanlistings:

• MuggleNet

• Patronus

Claim Technorati Blog

465hqprgjm

The Talisman

Title : The Talisman
Author : Stephen King, Peter Straub
Reading Dates : 3 Jul 09 - 14 Jul 09

The Talisman Book Summary. The Talisman is the tale of 12-year old Jack Sawyer's journey to save his dying mother. In order to accomplish this, he must travel across America, both in this world and a parallel world called the Territories to retrieve an object known as The Talisman. As Jack continually flips between the two worlds to escape from the dangers he encounters, he is pursued by his late father's business partner, Morgan Sloat. He is also aided in turns by Wolf, a new friend he meets in the Territories who happens to be a werewolf and Richard Sloat, his childhood friend and son of his enemy. In the end, Jack not only succeeds in his quest but avenges his father, Phil Sawyer's death at the hands of Morgan Sloat's right-hand man, Osmond "Sunlight" Gardener.

Book History. The Talisman is the result of a collaboration between famous American horror fiction writers, Stephen Edwin King and Peter Francis Straub. The idea for the book first took form in early 1977 although it would be many years later before they began writing the book. The Talisman was finally released in 1984 while its sequel, Black House set 20 years later with a grown-up Jack Sawyer was released in 2001.

The Authors. The author Stephen King, born 1947 in Portland, Maine began his writing career while in school writing for his brother's newspaper. Many of King's stories have been turned into movies or TV miniseries e.g. The Shawshank Redemption, The Mist, The Storm of the Century, The Green Mile and many more. King's co-author for The Talisman, Peter Straub was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Peter Straub started writing professionally in 1969 when he moved to Dublin, Ireland. Straub has received numerous literary honours such as the Bram Stoker Award, World Fantasy Award and International Honor Guild Award. Read more on the authors on Wikipedia or their official web site.

• Stephen King Page on Wikipedia
• Stephen King's Official Web Site
• Peter Straub Page on Wikipedia
• Peter Straub's Official Web Site

The Talisman Movie. While Steven Spielberg has held the rights to the film adaptation since the 1980s, it does not appear as if the movie or mini-series will be made anytime soon. While events in the demo do not strictly follow the book, I'd watch the movie if it was a trailer. Watch Canadian director Mathieu Ratthe's demo reel based on the opening chapter of The Talisman.

• Demo Reel Based on Stephen King and Peter Straub's The Talisman

The Dark Tower Series. Although there are no oblique references to the Dark Tower, shades of The Wasted Lands from the Dark Tower comes to mind when Travellin' Jack and Rational Richard travels through the Blasted Lands.

• The Dark Tower Official Web Site

Book Reviews. While the events described in the beginning and end of the book was unnecessarily long and complicated for my liking, most of the book makes for a compelling read. The story truly starts to take off after Jack's escape from Oatley. The best part of the book would be Jack's chance meeting with Wolf and the friendship they share. The trust and loyalty both boys show for each other makes for a great story of brotherly love. Even the loss of Wolf serves a part in Jack's growth as Jack becomes a better person for having known Wolf. I believe it is for this reason that Jack is infinitely more understanding and patient with Richard's refusal to accept The Territories despite evidence to the contrary.

My impression of Peter Straub Books. I've only ever read 1 book by Peter Straub, Mr X. (I'm excluding The Talisman and Black House which he co-wrote with Stephen King). And that was several years ago. I found the story to be interesting and wouldn't mind reading more of Mr Straub's works.

Author's Books. Find other books by the authors here :

• Stephen King's Amazon Page
• Peter Straub's Amazon Page
  

Free E-Book. The Talisman by Sir Walter Scott is a unrelated novel by the same name. Download and read it for free from Project Gutenberg.

http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=38752

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This last book in the Harry Potter series is a race and a quest. A race to stay ahead of Voldemort's Death Eaters while continuing their quest to find and destroy the Horcruxes. From that first pulse pounding fight in the air while fleeing with members of the Order of the Phoenix from Privet Drive to that sudden unexpected warning that the Ministry of Magic has fallen, Harry Potter and his friends are on the run.

The Ministry. It was pure luck that had Harry and his friends stumbling over the trail to their first Horcrux. But it is their combined knowledge, determination and ingenuity which enables them steal to the Horcrux from an old enemy, one ensconced within the walls of a Ministry under Voldemort's power.

The Sword of Griffindor. Away from their homes with no way back and Death Eaters on their trail, the friends wander aimlessly from place to place whille considering their next move. For neither Hermione's books or Harry's lessons with the late Dumbledore yields a clue to the location of the other Horcruxes or the Sword of Griffindor. Until mysteriously a silver doe appears to lead Harry to the sword.

The Deathly Hallows. With the destruction of Voldemort's third Horcrux, Harry and Hermione are at a loss how to proceed on their quest. In desperation, Harry and his friends seek out the Lovegoods in an attempt to unravel the clues left behind in The Tales of Beedle the Bard.
And hears of the Deathly Hallows which makes its possesor master of Death.

The Last Race. The final race against Voldemort starts in earnest when Dark Lord finally realizes what they are up to. A race that culminates in a battle between defenders of The Boy Who Lived and the Death Eaters while they strive to buy time for Harry to find the fifth Horcrux.

Courage, Sacrifice and Unity. A lone Griffindor draws the Sword of Godric Griffindor to destroy the last Horcrux before Voldemort's very own eyes. The houses of Griffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin stand together for the first time since Salazar Slytherin's departure. And after having lost both family and friends to the Dark Lord, Harry Potter triumphs.