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「ハリー・ポッターと死の秘宝」 (上下巻セット) (ハリー・ポッターシリーズ第七巻)

Starred Review. Potter fans, relax―this review packs no spoilers. Instead, we're taking advantage of our public platform to praise Rowling for the excellence of her plotting. We can't think of anyone else who has sustained such an intricate, endlessly inventive plot over seven thick volumes and so constantly surprised us with twists, well-laid traps and Purloined Letter -style tricks. Hallows continues the tradition, both with sly feats of legerdemain and with several altogether new, unexpected elements. Perhaps some of the surprises in Hallows don't have quite the punch as those of earlier books, but that may be because of the thoroughness and consistency with which Rowling has created her magical universe, and because we've so raptly absorbed its rules.

We're also seizing the occasion to wish out loud that her editors had done their jobs more actively. It's hard to escape the notion that the first three volumes were more carefully edited than the last four. Hallows doesn't contain the extraneous scenes found in, say, Goblet of Fire , but the momentum is uneven. Rowling is much better at comedy than at fight scenes, and no reader of the sixth book will be startled to hear that Hallows has little humor or that its characters engage in more than a few fights. Surely her editors could have helped her find other methods of building suspense besides the use of ellipses and dashes? And craft fight dialogue that sounds a bit less like it belongs in a comic book? Okay, we're quibbling. We know these minor nuisances won't dent readers' enjoyment, at least not this generation of readers; we couldn't put Hallows down ourselves. But we believe Rowling, and future readers, deserved even better. Ages 9-12. (July)
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内容自体はとても面白いです。伏線の回収、大規模な最終決戦、主要人物のその後など、およそ必要と思われるものは全て網羅しており、最終巻にふさわしい作品だと思います。幼かった学生たちの成長した姿は感慨深いものがあります。
ただ再三指摘されているとおり、今回も文章が読みづらくて仕方ありません。原文は知りませんが、読んでいて？と思うところが多々あります。前後の文と展開から補うことはできるのですが、表現力の不足は問題でしょう。翻訳した方は同時通訳の専門家と伺いましたが、海外ニュースの同時通訳を聞くときのような違和感と間の悪さがそのまま現れています。事実を伝えることだけが何より大事な通訳と違い、翻訳には読み易くそれでいて原作の雰囲気を壊さない技量が求められるのだと思います。その点を過去のシリーズから学んでいてほしかったのですが・・・。