"Harry

Potter and The Goblet of Fire," the fourth

installment of J. K. Rowling's anthology about a young

British wizard, was recently released to a worldwide

frenzy of readers.

"Goblet

of Fire" weighs in at nearly twice the size of the

other three books in the series, but is it as good as the

others and is it any good at all? Is bigger actually

better?

You better

believe it.

If you

haven't picked up a Harry Potter book yet, don't start

with this one, but do work your way up. If you have read

the other three books, this book is everything you have

come to expect from the series. There is the same

wonderful whimsy and magic filling each page, with the

World Cup of Quidditch and a year long TriWizard

competition that tests the limits of Harry's power. There

is also, as always, a great whodunit mystery at its core

that is sure to keep readers guessing until the very end.

The book

starts with Harry heading into his fourth year at

Hogwart's School for Witches and Wizards. He and his

friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, are 14 years

old and becoming more sure of their powers, while

becoming more unsure of everything else. Rowling has done

a wonderful job in aging the content along with the

characters, while still keeping it enjoyable and suitable

for nearly all ages. I say nearly because "Goblet of

Fire" is also the scariest of the four books, which

says a lot if you have read "Harry Potter and the

Prisoner of Azkaban."

The first

chapter of the book is quite intense and readers start to

follow a growing crisis in both the magical and Muggle

(human) world. All of Potter's rivals and enemies are out

in full force, including He Who Must Not Be Named. While

some parts of "Goblet of Fire" will keep you on

your toes, it is certainly not a horror novel and

definitely not a departure from the tone of the series.

One major

plus of the new novel is the growing social conscience of

the characters. The new novel sparks debate about

equality, misrepresentation by the media, jealousy and

bureaucracy. More than anything, though, the book is just

fun. Since there are close to 400 extra pages,

"Goblet of Fire" is almost double the usual

amount of fun.

There is,

however, one small problem. The ending is the mother of a ll cliff-hangers and we don't know when

the next book is expected to be released.

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