> > ...part of what makes the first three books so good is how tightly plotted they are.
>
> Book four is just as tightly plotted as books one through three.

Are you two serious? I recently read the second book in the series (still haven't seen the film) and found it almost mind-numbingly dull, poking along with no obvious sense of direction until halfway through the book, when things finally shifted out of first gear and pulled together into a rousing little story. Granted, I'm no critic, only an ordinary reader, and perhaps I simply don't know "tight plotting" when I see it. But after the first half of "Chamber of Secrets" I was just about bored out of my gourd.

Iss "maybe you meant to say tight *plodding* " achar