Fantasy Fiction

J.K Rowling

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The final summer
Lord Voldemort and his followers plot to ambush Harry Potter when he leaves the protected Dursley home for the last time. Voldemort also seeks a new wand that can defeat Harry's. As Order of the Phoenix members escort Harry to a safe house, they are attacked en route by Death Eaters. Harry narrowly escapes, but Hedwig and Mad-Eye Moody are killed.
A few days later, Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour arrives at The Burrow to give Harry, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger bequests from the late Albus Dumbledore's will. Ron receives Dumbledore's Deluminator, and Hermione has been left a children's book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Harry inherits Godric Gryffindor's sword and the Snitch he caught in his first-ever Quidditch match, although Scrimgeour withholds the sword. Later, the Snitch reveals a cryptic inscription in Dumbledore's handwriting: "I open at the close." Inside Hermione's book is an unusual hand-drawn symbol.

The search begins
During Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour's wedding reception, Kingsley Shacklebolt's Patronus arrives, announcing that Scrimgeour is dead and the Ministry is now under Voldemort's control. As Death Eaters approach, Harry, Ron and Hermione disapparate, ultimately taking refuge in 12 Grimmauld Place. There, Harry deduces that Sirius Black's late brother Regulus was the "R.A.B" who removed the locket Horcrux from the sea cave.[HP6] Hermione recalls seeing a locket amongst house-elf Kreacher's possessions.[HP5] Kreacher reveals that he placed the locket Horcrux in the cave for Voldemort, and Regulus died retrieving it. The Horcrux has since fallen into Dolores Umbridge's possession, due to Mundungus Fletcher looting the house. The trio infiltrate the Ministry of Magic disguised by Polyjuice Potion and recover the locket, but their hideout at Grimmauld Place is compromised, forcing them to flee.
The trio learn that the Sword of Gryffindor confiscated by the Ministry is a replica. Harry wants to find the real one because it can destroy Horcruxes, but a frustrated Ron leaves the group. Harry and Hermione search for the sword in Godric's Hollow, but they are ambushed by Nagini and Voldemort. During their escape, Hermione accidentally breaks Harry's wand.
In the Forest of Dean, a doe-shaped Patronus leads Harry to an icy pond containing the Gryffindor sword. As Harry attempts to retrieve it, the locket Horcrux around his neck begins strangling him. He is saved by Ron, who returns using the Deluminator and destroys the locket with the sword. Reunited with his friends, Ron warns them that Voldemort's name is now a Taboo: uttering it reveals the speaker's location to bounty hunters, known as Snatchers.

The Deathly Hallows
The trio learn from Xenophilius Lovegood, Luna's father, that the mysterious symbol represents the three Deathly Hallows: the Elder Wand, Resurrection Stone, and Invisibility Cloak. When pressed about Luna's absence, Lovegood admits that Death Eaters abducted her in retaliation for supporting Harry in his paper, The Quibbler. Fearing for Luna's safety, he has alerted the Ministry that the trio are there, but they escape.
Harry is convinced Voldemort is seeking the Elder Wand. When he inadvertently speaks Voldemort's name, they are immediately captured by Snatchers and imprisoned at Malfoy Manor, along with Luna, Dean, Ollivander and Griphook. Finding Gryffindor's sword among the trio's possessions, Bellatrix Lestrange worries they have broken into her Gringotts vault, and tortures Hermione for answers. Dobby apparates into the cellar and rescues Luna, Dean, and Ollivander, prompting Peter Pettigrew to investigate the noise. He throttles Harry, but reminded that he owes a life debt,[HP3] Pettigrew loosens his grip, causing his own silver hand to choke him to death in retribution. Harry and Ron rush upstairs to rescue Hermione. Ron disarms Bellatrix and Harry takes Draco's wand. Dobby reappears, and they disapparate to Bill and Fleur Weasley's cottage. As they escape, Bellatrix throws a knife that kills Dobby.
At the cottage, Ollivander confirms the Elder Wand's existence and says that a wand can transfer its allegiance if the previous owner is defeated or disarmed. Bellatrix's behaviour convinces the trio that another Horcrux is hidden in the Lestrange vault. Aided by Griphook, they infiltrate Gringotts Bank and retrieve Hufflepuff's Cup Horcrux.
Meanwhile, Voldemort opens Dumbledore's tomb and steals the Elder Wand. Dumbledore captured it after defeating the dark wizard Grindelwald in a duel. Voldemort believes it is the only wand powerful enough to defeat Harry. Voldemort also realises that his Horcruxes are being destroyed; his mind link with Harry unintentionally reveals that another Horcrux is hidden in Hogwarts.

The Battle of Hogwarts
The trio travel to Hogsmeade, where Aberforth Dumbledore smuggles them into Hogwarts. Harry alerts the staff to Voldemort's impending invasion, while Hogwarts allies arrive. Harry learns that Ravenclaw's Diadem is a Horcrux, while Hermione destroys the Cup Horcrux with a basilisk fang retrieved from the Chamber of Secrets.[HP2] Harry recalls seeing the diadem in the Room of Requirement.[HP6] The trio are attacked there by Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. Crabbe mishandles the powerful Fiendfyre spell, killing himself and destroying the diadem, although the others escape.
Harry glimpses Voldemort's mind again, leading the trio to the Shrieking Shack. Inside, they witness Voldemort kill Snape with Nagini, believing it will make him the Elder Wand's master. As Snape dies, he gives Harry memories that prove his loyalty to Dumbledore, motivated by his lifelong love for Harry's mother Lily. After being cursed by Gaunt's Ring Horcrux, a doomed Dumbledore ordered Snape to kill him, if necessary, at a strategic time. It was Snape who sent the doe Patronus in the Forest of Dean. The memories also reveal that Harry himself is a Horcrux.
Resigned to death, Harry approaches Voldemort's camp in the Forbidden Forest. Along the way, he finds the Resurrection Stone inside the Snitch and summons the spirits of his parents, Sirius Black and the recently killed Remus Lupin, who comfort him and provide safe passage. Voldemort then strikes him with Avada Kedavra. Awakening in an ethereal place, Harry is uncertain whether he is alive or dead. Dumbledore appears and explains that Voldemort's Horcrux within Harry has been destroyed. He says that just as Voldemort cannot die while his soul fragments remain, Harry is also protected from death because his blood was used in Voldemort's resurrection.
Harry revives, but feigns death. Voldemort has Hagrid carry Harry's body to Hogwarts as a trophy. When Neville Longbottom defies Voldemort, the Sorting Hat is placed aflame on his head; pulling it off, he withdraws Gryffindor's sword from it and beheads Nagini, destroying the final Horcrux. As the fighting resumes, many magical folk join the battle against the Death Eaters. Knowing that he is the Elder Wand's true master, Harry challenges Voldemort. When Draco Malfoy disarmed Dumbledore on the Astronomy Tower,[HP6] he unknowingly became the Elder Wand's master; Harry gained its allegiance when he captured Draco's own wand. Voldemort casts a Killing Curse as Harry conjures a Disarming Spell, but the Elder Wand backfires Voldemort's curse, killing him.
Among the battle's casualties are Fred Weasley, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Colin Creevey and Bellatrix Lestrange. Harry tells Dumbledore's portrait he is keeping the Invisibility Cloak, but the Resurrection Stone will remain lost in the forest, while the Elder Wand is to be returned to Dumbledore's tomb, where its power will be extinguished if Harry dies undefeated. Dumbledore approves. Before returning the Elder Wand, Harry uses it to repair his own wand.

Epilogue
Nineteen years later, Harry and Ginny Weasley are married and have three children: James, Albus Severus, and Lily. Ron and Hermione are also married and have two children, Rose and Hugo. The families meet at King's Cross station,where a nervous Albus is departing for his first year at Hogwarts. Harry's nineteen-year-old godson, Teddy Lupin, is found kissing Victoire Weasley (Bill and Fleur's daughter) in a train compartment. Teddy is apparently very close to the Potters, with Harry remarking, "He already comes round for dinner about four times a week." Harry spots Draco Malfoy and his unnamed wife with their son, Scorpius; Malfoy acknowledges Harry with a curt nod, then turns away. Harry comforts Albus, who is worried he will be sorted into Slytherin, by telling him that his namesake, Severus Snape, was a Slytherin and the bravest man he ever met. He adds that the Sorting Hat takes one's own choice into account. Neville Longbottom is now the Hogwarts Herbology professor and is close friends with Harry. The book concludes with the words: "The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well."

Harry Potter and the Half blood prince

The story opens with the conspicuous celebration of a normally secretive wizarding world. For many years, it had been terrorised by the evil wizard, Lord Voldemort. The previous night, on 31 October, Voldemort discovers the Potter family's hidden refuge, killing Lily and James Potter. However, when he attempts to murder their infant son, Harry, the Avada Kedavra killing curse he casts rebounds upon him. Voldemort's body is destroyed, but his spirit survives: he is neither dead nor alive. Meanwhile, the orphaned Harry is left with a distinctive lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead, the only physical sign of Voldemort's curse. Harry is the only known survivor of the killing curse, and Voldemort's mysterious defeat causes the wizarding community to dub Harry "The Boy Who Lived".
On November 1, Hagrid, a 'half-giant', delivers Harry to his only living relatives, the cruel and magic-phobic Dursleys, comprising Uncle Vernon, a bad-tempered uncle with hardly any neck; Aunt Petunia, a long-necked woman who appears to absolutely loathe Harry; and Dudley, their spoiled, overweight son. They attempt in vain to rid him of his magical powers, hide his magical heritage, and severely punish him after any strange occurrences.
However, as his eleventh birthday approaches, Harry has his first contact with the magical world when he receives letters from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which are delivered by owls. However, his uncle intercepts the letters. On his birthday, Hagrid, Hogwarts' gamekeeper, appears and informs Harry that he is a wizard and has been invited to attend the school. Each book chronicles one year in Harry's life, which is mostly spent at Hogwarts. There he learns to use magic and brew potions. Harry also learns to overcome many magical, social, and emotional hurdles as he struggles through his adolescence, Voldemort's second rise to power, and the Ministry of Magic's corruption and incompetence. After facing many obstacles, making countless friends, and losing loved ones, Harry Potter confronts the Dark Lord for the last time.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Ron and Hermione are named Gryffindor prefects, leaving Harry somewhat envious. At Hogwarts, they are surprised that Dolores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister and who presided at Harry's hearing, has been appointed as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Hermione's opinion that the Ministry is interfering with Hogwarts is accurate; Umbridge is there to spy on the school and only teaches Ministry approved theory rather than practical defence methods. She is soon appointed as High Inquisitor, arbitrarily imposing strict rules and regulations. She also harbours racial hatred for "half-breeds," such as centaurs, werewolves, and similar creatures. She considers Rubeus Hagrid (a half-giant) and Sybill Trelawney incompetent, and fires Trelawney and puts Hagrid on probation. Although Dumbledore is unable to prevent Trelawney's dismissal, he invokes his authority to allow her to remain in the castle and appoints a new Divination teacher — the centaur, Firenze.
Harry has been having disturbing dreams about running down a hallway and attempting to open a door in the Ministry of Magic's Department of Mysteries. One night he dreams he is a snake attacking Ron's father. Mr. Weasley is indeed found injured at the Ministry, suffering from severe venomous snake bites, causing Harry to fear that he is being possessed by Voldemort. In response, Dumbledore has Severus Snape teach Harry Occlumency to block his mind from intrusion, but their mutual animosity ends their lessons prematurely.
To combat the Ministry's smear campaign against Harry and Dumbledore, Hermione blackmails hack journalist Rita Skeeter into writing a favourable article about Harry witnessing Voldemort's return. Ravenclaw student Luna Lovegood's father publishes the story in his magazine, The Quibbler. Furious, Umbridge bans the tabloid from the school, but the story spreads rapidly, garnering support for Harry.

[edit] Dumbledore's Army and the Student Revolt
Hermione convinces Harry to secretly teach Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff students Defense Against the Dark Arts. They name their clandestine group "Dumbledore's Army", or "D.A." for short, to mock the Ministry of Magic, which fears Dumbledore is secretly building a wizard army. Under Harry's tutoring, the group learns defensive Dark Art magic, but Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad, consisting mostly of Slytherin students, eventually uncovers the D.A.'s meetings. To protect Harry and the other students from reprisals, Dumbledore claims he organized the group. Confronted by two Aurors (Dawlish and Shacklebolt), Minister Fudge, Percy Weasley and Umbridge, Dumbledore easily overpowers them and is spectacularly whisked away by his phoenix, Fawkes.
Umbridge is appointed Headmistress and enacts even more rigid rules and fires Hagrid. Fed up, the Weasley twins revolt, unleashing non-stop magical chaos throughout the school, while the staff purposely do nothing to help Umbridge regain control. Fred and George are caught, but summoning their confiscated brooms, they zoom off, leaving Hogwarts for good to open their own joke shop in Diagon Alley.

[edit] Visions
Harry receives a vision that Sirius is being tortured at the Department of Mysteries, although Hermione suspects it may be a trap. Harry desperately attempts to contact Sirius at Grimmauld Place via the Floo Network in Umbridge's office fireplace, but he is caught. Umbridge reveals it was she who sent the Dementors to attack Harry during the summer. As she is about to use the illegal Cruciatus Curse on him, Hermione claims that Dumbledore has hidden a powerful weapon in the Forbidden Forest. She leads Harry and Umbridge into the forest where they encounter the centaurs. Umbridge foolishly insults them and an angry centaur picks up Umbridge and carries her off screaming into the woods. When Hagrid's giant half-brother, Grawp, crashes onto the scene, Hermione and Harry escape amid the chaos. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, along with fellow D.A. members Ginny, Neville, and Luna fly to the Ministry of Magic on the school's Thestrals.

[edit] Battle at the Department of Mysteries
At the Ministry of Magic, Death Eaters ambush the students. They heroically defend themselves, but are outmatched. As they are nearly defeated, Order members arrive. During the ensuing battle, the glass prophecy sphere that Voldemort was seeking is shattered and the prophecy lost. Sirius is blasted with a spell by his Death Eater cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, and falls backwards through a mysterious veiled archway. Lupin restrains Harry from going after him; Sirius is dead.
The Death Eaters are captured except for Bellatrix Lestrange, who Harry pursues into the atrium. Lord Voldemort appears and attacks Harry, but he is saved by Dumbledore. Ministry of Magic employees arrive in time to see the Dark Lord before he Disapparates, taking Lestrange with him. Cornelius Fudge finally admits that Voldemort has returned. Rita Skeeter's story is reprinted in the Daily Prophet, exonerating Harry and Dumbledore.
Later, Dumbledore apologizes to Harry for withholding information over the past five years. He reveals the lost prophecy, which was originally given to him by Sybill Trelawney. Either Harry or Voldemort "must die at the hands of the other, for neither can live while the other survives". Dumbledore also reveals that, due to when the boy was predicted to be born, Neville Longbottom could also have been the child in the prophecy. Dumbledore believes Voldemort chose to attack Harry because he is a half-blood like himself; Neville is a pureblood. In so doing, the Dark Lord marked Harry as his equal. Dumbledore also discloses why he continues to send Harry back to the Dursleys' home for the summer. He tells Harry that when his mother died to protect him, this initiated an ancient magic. As long as Harry stays at the house of his blood-relative long enough to call it a home, it would provide for him a shield protection not even Voldemort is able to overcome. Furthermore, Dumbledore explains to Harry why he had not made him a prefect: he thought that Harry had enough to worry about and did not want to burden him with more responsibilities.

[edit] Dealing with loss
Shortly before school ends, Harry seeks out Nearly Headless Nick. He asks if Sirius can come back as a ghost, but Sir Nick says, "he will have...gone on". It is only those fearing death who remain as earthbound spirits. Still grieving, Harry finds Luna Lovegood hanging posters in the hall asking the whereabouts of her missing possessions that students have taken to taunt her. He asks about her being able to see the thestrals, and she replies that she saw her mother die, the result of an experimental magic spell gone wrong. But Luna says that she knows she will see her mother again; she and others who have died are just behind the veiled arch. Surprisingly, Harry feels comforted knowing that he may see Sirius again and heads off to finish packing.
At King's Cross station, several Order members are there to greet Harry and the Dursleys. Alastor Moody warns Uncle Vernon that if Harry is mistreated, they will intervene. Harry leaves to head back to 4 Privet Drive with the Dursleys, stopping once to look back towards his two best friends, Ron and Hermione.

Roald Dahl

The BFG

Sophie and the BFG (Big Friendly Giant) must save the world from mean giants! Lucky for her, Sophie meets the kindest, gentlest, most friendly giant around. The BFG takes Sophie to giant land where she quickly learns that not all giants are as friendly as he is, and worse, the mean giants are planning to come to England!

The Witches

"They are completely bald and always wear wigs, constantly sneaking hands underneath to scratch their itchy scalps. They don't have any toes and have really broad feet, but they force their feet into narrow, fashionable shoes to blend in. They have really long, curved fingernails that they usually hide by wearing gloves. They are the witches. And the meanest, nastiest witches live in England, where a boy has just gone to live with his grandmother after his parent's tragic death. His grandmother always warned the boy about suspecting nice women who offer him candy - check for gloves, wigs and pinched feet. He is able to avoid the witches until his grandmother becomes ill and they go to a seaside resort where the English witches are having a convention just like normal people in the hotel. Stunned, the boy overhears the grand witch's plot to eliminate all of the children in England by feeding them candy that will turn them into mice! When he is discovered, the boy knows that the witches are going to kill him, but they test the potion on him instead. Now in mouse form, the boy and his grandmother must use all of their wits and cleverness to defeat the witches' evil scheme!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Poor Charlie Bucket is practically starving to death, but his luck changes for the better when he wins a lifetime supply of candy--and a chance to visit Willy Wonka's fabulous, top-secret chocolate factory. This charming, irreverent tale, one of Roald Dahl's best, has captivated children for more than thirty years.
Five lucky people who find a Golden Ticket wrapped in one of Willy Wonka's wonderful candy bars win a visit to his mysterious chocolate factory. Charlie Bucket is too poor to buy more than one candy bar a year, so when he wins a ticket, his whole family celebrates.
The four other lucky children are not as nice as Charlie, and they're punished for their bad behavior. Greedy Augustus Gloop falls into the chocolate river he's trying to drink from and gets sucked up a pipe. Chewing-gum addict Violet Beauregarde grabs a stick of gum that blows her up into a giant blueberry. Spoiled Veruca Salt is deemed a "bad nut" by Wonka's trained squirrels and thrown in the garbage. And Mike Teavee demands to be "sent by television" and gets shrunk in the process. But there's a wonderful surprise waiting for Charlie at the end of the tour.

Eion Colfer

The Wish List

This is the story of 14 year old Meg Finn. The book begins with her and her accomplice, a bully named Belch breaking into a pensioner’s house. Things go wrong when Lowrie, the pensioner is awakened and they go from bad to worse when Belch blows both Meg and himself to kingdom come.
Both of them die and Belch is sent straight to hell. Meg however, having done her best to save Lowrie’s life is half and half good and bad and so she is between Heaven and Hell. She has to return to Earth and try to help Lowrie – the man she wronged, to complete his wish list, so that her aura can turn blue and she can go to Heaven.
The devil however has plans for Meg and wants her to fail so he sends Belch back to Earth to get her.

The Supernaturalists

And when you've finished it you're pretty sure you've read a funny book, except the story is in fact so sad it stays with you for ages. That's The Supernaturalist. It's set in the future but don't get excited because we humans are way past our zenith. It's downhill all the way from now on.
Satellite City:
An entire city custom-constructed for the third millennium. Everything the body wanted, and nothing the soul needed. Three hundred square miles of grey steel and automobiles.
Read on. You are about to meet some needy souls. There's Cosmo Hill, inmate of the Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys, who at fourteen is having to stand down his cherished dream of being adopted. The other option though, of suddenly taking responsibility for his own future, is also abit of a challenge for Cosmo. An overturned bus isn't necessarily everyone's idea of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but this is definitely Cosmo's moment.
And he blows it. Well, maybe he never really stood a chance. But, as luck would have it, there just happens to be a bunch of misfits standing around who can rescue him. Just about:
'Ditto had to do quite a bit of work on you. You never would have made it to a hospital, so we had to use whatever was lying around. Your painkiller drip was a bit past the sell-by date, but hey, it didn't kill you.'Mona consulted a wall monitor over Cosmo's bed.'Ditto glued the Achilles tendon in your left heel and replaced your right kneecap with grown-bone.'Cosmo nodded, aghast.'We also had to go into your chest and plasti-coat a few of your ribs. I took the staples out this morning. And, of course, I had to shave your head.''What?'Mona shrugged. 'It was either that or let your brain fall out on the floor...'
It's a pity they don't have the technology to mend broken hearts. There's Stefan, the leader of the little group, who's lost his mother and blames himself. And there's Ditto, mutant victim of gene-splicing experiments, who had hoped for a normal life outside the Institute. And there's Mona:
...in truth he was more than happy to accompany Mona anywhere she wanted to go. After all he was fourteen years old, and Mona was the first girl he had ever spoken to unsupervised.
So, that's the scene set. All you need to do now is read the the book and see what they get up to. I think you'll enjoy this one, and I think it will catch you by surprise too.

Artemis Fowl

Artemis Fowl breaks many barriers, in my mind at least, of the average reader’s perception of a main character’s function. In most books the protagonist is a hero or heroine always ready to rescue a poor soul and join the battle for the ultimate good. For Artemis Fowl though, sinister deeds surely fail, the prisoner is always liberated, and justice is served to the antagonist. Eoin Colfer does a superior job of offering a refreshing hero who isn’t completely evil, but falls far from being a shining knight, but the usual hero is not half as entertaining and complex as Artemis Fowl. Artemis Fowl is a dark fantasy about a criminal mastermind with plans to obtain gold by doing whatever is necessary - including malicious negotiations and bribes with deadly creatures. However, this is no simple task. The gold Artemis seeks lies in the hands of fairies, who are not merry sprites, mind you. They are tenacious creatures who spit upon the idea of ever having a mud man, or human, lay a filthy finger on their gold. As cold as Artemis appears to the world around him, inside Fowl Manor the cunning Artemis leads a depressing life. His mother has gone mad after the loss of her husband, and Artemis has been fatherless for two years. In retrospect, Artemis can be seen as a poor, neglected boy who reverts to illegal activities to fund his expeditions to locate his missing father. It is almost as if Colfer wants the reader to decide whether Artemis is a cynical mastermind or just a corrupted boy. None of the characters in Artemis Fowl are totally good or bad. Colfer combines a perfect mix of clever magic and mystery to create a brilliant novel that will have readers everywhere breaking daylight hours trying to finish it.

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