[Emni Windrunner]

If you're still looking for a stand-alone fantasy book, I'd recommend <B>The Seventh Princess</B> by Nick Sullivan, if you can find it.<BR>Like many of you, I also don't like to draw comparisons between Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, but there are some similarities that I can't help but notice, mainly in the area of archetypes. There is the archetypical (and all-but-forgotten nowadays) battle between good and evil, and several of the characters from both series are archetypes that, while they're not precisely interchangeable, are very similar. There's the wise old teacher (Galdalf, Dumbledore), the unlikely hero (Frodo, Harry), the ultimate bad guy (Sauron, Voldemort), and the lesser bad guy who's still dangerous (Saruman, various figures in the HP world).<BR>I think, as has been said already, that LOTR is heavier and more profound, as well as more deeply developed, but I don't think HP should be written off as thoughtless fluff that's only good for a laugh and some adventure. This is true of all the HP books, not just <B>The Goblet of Fire</B>, and, light "children's fare" though it might be, Harry Potter has proven as thought-provoking as Tolkien and C.S. Lewis have done for me.<BR>And as for Harry Potter being satanic and desensitizing...Well, I work in the periodicals section at a library, and I can't count the number of articles and columns I've seen and read that scream about how HP is producing a new generation of devil-worshipers, but I've noticed that most of the writers' problems with HP are things that occur in LOTR, as well, and they accept those. Gandalf uses magic, and that's okay, but the minute Harry raises his wand, it's evil? Most of these column-writers need to take a course in introductory logic, because their arguments have more holes in them than Swiss cheese. I think the fourth HP book comes the closest to any kind of spiritually dangerous ground, but what's shown in there is clearly portrayed as evil, and what balanced kid in his right mind is going to want to do any of that?!<BR>Okay, sorry about the vent, I'm done now. HP is one of my hot buttons.