Synopses & Reviews
I say to you all, once again in the light of
Lord Voldemort's return, we are only as strong
as we are united, as weak as we are divided.
Lord Voldemort's gift for spreading discord and
enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing
an equally strong bond of friendship and trust.
So spoke Albus Dumbledore at the end of Harry Potter's fourth year at Hogwarts. But as Harry enters his fifth year at wizard school, it seems those bonds have never been more sorely tested. Lord Voldemort's rise has opened a rift in the wizarding world between those who believe the truth about his return, and those who prefer to believe it's all madness and lies just more trouble from Harry Potter.
Add to this a host of other worries for Harry...
- A Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher with a personality like poisoned honey
- A venomous, disgruntled house-elf
- Ron as keeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch team
- And of course, what every student dreads: end-of-term Ordinary Wizarding Level exams
...and you'd know what Harry faces during the day. But at night it's even worse, because then he dreams of a single door in a silent corridor. And this door is somehow more terrifying than every other nightmare combined.
In the richest installment yet of J. K. Rowling's seven-part story, Harry Potter confronts the unreliability of the very government of the magical world, and the impotence of the authorities at Hogwarts.
Despite this (or perhaps because of it) Harry finds depth and strength in his friends, beyond what even he knew; boundless loyalty and unbearable sacrifice.
Though thick runs the plot (as well as the spine), readers will race through these pages, and leave Hogwarts, like Harry, wishing only for the next train back.
Review
"The book richly deserves the hype....Order of the Phoenix allows the reader to savor Rowling's remarkably fertile imagination." Deirdre Donahue, USA Today
Review
"It was worth the wait. And then some....[M]ost striking, the range of emotions is larger, and not just Harry's....It all makes for an engrossing read." Deepti Hajela, The Miami Herald
Review
"[Rowling's] Potter saga...positively teems with imagination and creativity." Phil Kloer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Review
"Although it takes a while for the gears of this immensely long novel to mesh fully, the author's bravura storytelling skills and tirelessly inventive imagination soon take over, braiding together the mundane and the marvelous, the psychological and the allegorical with consummate authority and ease." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Review
"Some authors write series for commercial reasons but this book confirms that, for Rowling, the architecture of a seven-book sequence has always been artistically driven....What remains clear in this fifth installment of the story is that Rowling is a very hard writer to dislike." Mark Lawson, The Guardian (U.K.)
Review
"Rowling does her usual page-turningly good job. Although this is a complex novel, the high energy level almost never flags, thanks in part to the author's ability to create vivid scenes and set pieces." Michael Cart, The Los Angeles Times
Review
"[G]o read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for the...sheer comic exuberance even in the midst of high drama....Jokes, gags and memorable put-downs pop up on nearly every page." Elizabeth Ward, The Washington Post
Review
"Just when we might have expected author J.K. Rowling's considerable imaginative energies to flag...she has hit peak form and is gaining speed....[Rowling's] prose, always a serviceable, unshowy instrument, is stronger and more confident, and she has become a virtuoso plotter, a master at snappy pacing, able to stun and surprise at will." Lev Grossman, Time
Review
"Rowling continues to deliver her unique magic. And while it involves spells, eccentric characters and a wonderful world where we'd all probably like to spend some time, the real magic involves a very personal, often difficult, battle between good and evil that continues to give a reason for hope." Robin Vidimos, The Denver Post
Review
"Is [Phoenix] as good as the other Harry Potter books? No. This one is actually quite a bit better....[A] slam dunk....Dolores Umbridge...is the greatest make-believe villain to come along since Hannibal Lecter....I think Harry will take his place with Alice, Huck, Frodo, and Dorothy, and this is one series not just for the decade, but for the ages. (Grade: A)" Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly
Review
"No, you can't put it down....Rowling has not lost her flair as a storyteller or her ability to keep coming up with new gimcracks to astound her readers....[A] rich, worthy effort that meets the very high expectations of a world of readers." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"If [Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire] was the work of a born storyteller still sorting out her technique, Phoenix is the smooth product of a natural at the top of her game. Phoenix is even longer than Goblet, but it never idles or slackens. There's less reliance on startling tricks and reversals and more attention to the underlying organic structures of art. Rowling's hold on the steering wheel doesn't wobble, either. You can feel that she knows just what she's doing, weaving in the threads of the series' larger themes as they grow deeper and richer....With the aptly-named [Dolores] Umbridge...Rowling has created her best bad guy yet....Rowling steps briefly out of the conventions of the genre to send a shiver of reality through her imaginary world. It's a sign that wherever she takes us next, we can't expect the old rules to apply anymore. But that, after all, is what growing up is all about." Laura Miller, Salon.com (read the entire Salon review)
Synopsis
As Harry enters his fifth year at wizard school, it seems the bonds of friendship and trust have never been more sorely tested. Lord Voldemort's rise has opened a rift in the wizarding world between those who believe the truth about his return, and those who prefer to believe it's all madness and lies just more trouble from Harry Potter.
Synopsis
Vietnamese translation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
About the Author
Like that of her own character, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling's life has the luster of a fairy tale. Divorced, living on public assistance in a tiny Edinburgh flat with her infant daughter, Rowling wrote
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone at a table in a café during her daughter's naps and it was Harry Potter that rescued her. First, the Scottish Arts Council gave her a grant to finish the book. After its sale to Bloomsbury (UK) and Scholastic Books, the accolades began to pile up.
Harry Potter won The British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year, and the Smarties Prize, and rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. Book rights have been sold to England, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Greece, Finland, Denmark, Spain and Sweden.
A graduate of Exeter University, a teacher, and then an unemployed single parent, Rowling wrote Harry Potter when "I was very low, and I had to achieve something. Without the challenge, I would have gone stark raving mad." But Rowling has always written; her first book was called Rabbit. "I was about six, and I haven't stopped scribbling since."