"The summer holidays are dragging on and Harry Potter can't wait for the start of the school year. It is his fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and there are spells to be learnt, potions to be brewed and Divination lessons (sigh) to be attended. Harry is expecting these: however, other quite unexpected events are already on the march..."
I read this in hardback (it's due out in paperback on the 6th July 2001 - about time too) and it really is a heavy book to have to take to work and back on the underground (it's 14 cassettes this time so poor Stephen Fry must have worked hard for this one).
In the tried and trusted formula we start off in Privet Drive with the Dursleys, before Harry goes off to join Ron at The Burrow. Again, it's when he goes back into the magical community that the book starts to get interesting. Reading about life in a muggle environment just isn't as exciting, I do that every day :-)
In places, this story is quite dark, and pretty scary, but then I guess Lord Voldermort (Sorry, You Know Who) is a pretty nasty piece of work and so it would be.
My rating: Good