The Best Harry Potter Books

With the Harry Potter series, author J.K. Rowling has created a universe that will live on long past the generation that grew up reading about the boy wizard and his wizarding world. The books themselves are marvels, great works that pull the readers in and never let go. They will certainly, each of the seven, stand the test of time. But the question will still inevitably be asked again and again and again: Which books are best? Here are the best Harry Potter books.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the book that pulled this author into the series. I read the first two out of a sense of obligation. Any professional writer would be remiss not to read the series that became such an international phenomenon. But Prisoner of Azkaban convinced me that the success of the Harry Potter series was no fluke. The third installment has everything. J.K. Rowling deftly combines other genres - crime, mystery, thriller - into the fantasy world of Harry Potter. The character of Sirius Black is certainly one of Rowling's best. And the Dementors, they add a horror to the wizarding world that not even Lord Voldemort himself can accomplish. Prisoner of Azkaban is also the last novel that is of an easily digested size, the last novel before J.K. Rowling could get away with writing 870-page books. For these reasons, it is this author's humble opinion that Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the best book in the Harry Potter series.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince seems to flow better than any of the previous Harry Potter novels, probably because author J.K. Rowling by the time of writing it was incredibly comfortable with the characters and knew them as well as she knew her own friends and family. The transitions between chapters are more seamless, the characters well drawn, and the story as interesting as any set to paper. The prose is tight, and the ending a complete surprise - at least to this author. The knowledge of the Horcruxes make obtaining and devouring the seventh and final installment - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - an absolute must.

Finally, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has an ending that makes it worthy of being called one of J.K. Rowling's best. The tension that builds in the final few pages is breathtaking, as Dumbledore comes to the realization that Lord Voldemort is back, and begins to make war-like preparations. Unfortunately, those pages - perhaps the best in the series - were cut from the film, but they are certainly worthy of a second and third read.