Science Fiction: Welcome to my Worlds

It was not my intention to write a Harry Potter review at this time-- or any other time-- even though I dearly love the series by J.K. Rowling. After all, my purpose is to acquaint people with excellent books they might not be familiar with, for one reason or another, and the only one's who haven't read the Harry Potter books, or seen the movies, probably have been either in a deep coma the last several years or dislike them (without bothering to read them first) because of some form of religious fanaticism.

Sometimes circumstances conspire to change our minds. I was browsing through some Usenet newsgroups dedicated to books and ran across a title I'd never heard of before: Harry Potter and the Psychic Serpent. Since I'd already read all the books and seen all the movies (I did mention I'm a fan) I knew this was not part of the original series. I downloaded the file at the time and put it in my ever-lengthy things-to-read list. That was something like six months ago.

Last week, I was looking in my Sony ebook reader-- I have several shelves of paper books too but the reader is great for found items like this-- for something to read and came across the Harry Potter and the Psychic Serpent file. I looked at the intro seeing that it was, indeed, a work of fan fiction by B.L. (Barb) Purdom. There is so much pro fiction I've never gotten around to in my many years of reading Fantasy and SF that I've never gotten started trying to read fan fiction. And I really don't like short stories much anyway. They're, um, just too short. But this was a NOVEL LENGTH piece written in the Harry Potter universe... so I decided to give it a shot. I'm very glad I did.

The beginning of the book was a little slow and awkward but it picked up fairly quickly once Harry Potter went again into Hogwarts. I should probably mention that Purdom wrote the book in the same format that Rowling used, starting him out interacting with the Dursley's over summer vacation then taking him back to magic school for his real adventures. Harry Potter and the Psychic Serpent was written as though it were the fifth book in the series taking Harry, Ron, and Hermionie through their preparations for OWL's testing.

I was fascinated to see that Hermione is Harry's girlfriend in this book. It has always been obvious to me that Hermione and Harry are MUCH more suited to each other than she and Ron. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that relationship changes later from hints I've gotten, even though I've only started reading Purdom's second book. For the first time Ginny Weasley reveals herself in this novel as someone Harry might plausibly be interested in, though, rather that the somewhat cardboard character she appears in Rowling's books. I'm sure reading Psychic Serpent was a welcome preoccupation for fans while J.K. Rowling was working on the fifth book.

Perhaps the best way to look at Psychic Serpent (and the two other novels Purdom has written to follow) would be as a sort of alternate Harry Potter Universe. I think it is pretty obvious that she tried to come as close as possible to matching her characters to those of J.K. Rowling. In fact, Purdom has done a masterful job of matching her Harry Potter with the original. I could find no noticeable difference there at all.

Differences do show up, though, in both Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Ron seems more quick tempered and less amusing than the original. I'll admit that I was a little thrown by the way Hermione seemed so okay with deceiving Ron about the relationship she was having with Harry. It seemed very much out of her usual character somehow. I understand the concept of building conflict, but I would have expected her to fess up and take the consequences of that immediately. I was also surprised at a physical difference in Hermione. She had never come across as a 'stacked sweater girl' either in the Rowling series or the movies to me. :)

I should probably hastily add that I do NOT have a problem with the more open adolescent sexuality of the characters revealed in this novel. Their attitudes and interactions with each other are far more realistic in that respect than the original novels were able to be because of prudish publishing constraints.

I've mentioned before that truly excellent books are always about the characters, regardless of whatever else they may contain. I was about three-quarters of the way through Harry Potter and the Psychic Serpent before I realized something truly amazing. In spite of the slow start it was, in a very important way, actually BETTER than the original series. Purdom's freedom to 'flesh out' the characters resulted not just in a 'racier' more interesting plot, but in characters that came across as much more real than the limitations and expectations of the publishing world could allow. She is very good at making you CARE about the characters. Rowling had previously been able to show that bad things happen to kids too, but she was never able to embrace the reality of adolescent relationships. We were all teenagers sometime... even though we might like to forget about it.

Something that should be obvious from my writing this review may need to be spelled out for some. B. L. Purdom has talent, and a lot of it. This book is not typical fan fiction in that it is polished and professional as any I've ever read, including J. K. Rowling. Even though it is written in someone else's world, it certainly stands on its own in quality.

The author's passion distinguishes her in addition to her talent. Who could write, not one but three or four complete novels, KNOWING that she could never sell them-- only doing it for the sheer love of the topic. I couldn't. I wouldn't. I'll be the first to admit my passion just isn't that great. But I do love the Harry Potter novels and I love B.L. Purdom's addition to them as well. I very much hope she will continue writing in universes of her own creation. I'd love to read them.

Now the question becomes: Since Harry Potter and the Psychic Serpent has not been traditionally published, how would you go about reading it? You won't find it on Amazon.com or in any bookstore that I know about. As I mentioned, I found it posted on a Usenet e-book newsgroup. If you do Usenet, you might hang out there and hope (or request) that it be reposted. Or you can just go to 4shared and download it or to Schnoogle or Wattpad on the web and read it there along with the sequels, Harry Potter and the Time of Good Intentions and Harry Potter and the Triangle Prophecy.

Whatever you do, don't miss it.