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A few years ago my game store of choice was selling a stack of Ars Magica Fourth Edition sourcebooks for a meager five dollars each, due to the fact that delivery of the Fifth Edition was only a day or two away. Reckoning that I could hardly go wrong for five dollars, I picked up a copy and was very pleasantly surprised at its depth and quality. Sadly, I was never inspired to run or play in an Ars Magica game, and the book went to the back of my shelf. Then, just a few days ago, inspiration hit me in the face- in the form of these damn, damn Harry Potter books!

Each of these novels (there are three so far in the series) is a four-hour read for a literate twentysomething, but be forewarned- you will be sorely tempted to cancel your appointments, feign illness, avoid work, and take your nutrition through an IV so that nothing can interrupt your rapture until each book is finished.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, chronicling our hero's second year at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, follows in the footsteps of the excellent Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone. The action is thicker, the magic more dangerous, the cast larger, and the stakes much higher.

Conspiracies Afoot, Secrets Revealed

Young Potter, it seems, has attracted the attention of shadowy forces within the hierarchy of the wizarding world. After narrowly escaping murder at the hands of the decaying Lord Voldemort in the previous story's climax, Harry finds himself the focus of terrible rumors and innuendo within the corridors of Hogwarts. Is he the prophesied Heir of the dark magus Salazar Slytherin, and is he responsible for the mysterious attacks that are leaving more and more students in deathlike paralysis? Time is running out for Harry to prove his innocence, even to himself.

One by one, Harry's friends are removed from him by distrust or skullduggery, and one by one his most powerful allies among the faculty are taken out of the picture as well. Alone, without the promise of support at any level, Harry must eventually make a decision that will force him into another confrontation with an aspect of the deathless Lord Voldemort- and reveal the deep ties that bind him to the murderer of his parents.

Gradual Expansion of an Entrancing World

Most writers of "adult" fantasy could do with taking a page from J.K. Rowling's work. This story features enough interweaving conspiracies, factional intrigues, unique mysteries, and amusing details to fill a novel three times its length, all delivered in a challenging, mature manner utterly devoid of patronization. Young readers will have to be on their toes, and even older readers will have to stay sharp to keep ahead of the action.

It's easy to see just why this series has so delighted adults as well as children. While preserving the essential character of the first novel, Rowling expands the scope of her fictional world by an order of magnitude and gives us a glimpse of the wider magical society and the very serious struggles for power going on within it. As always, the villains of the piece are a cause for serious alarm, rarely played for laughs or made out to be fools. The author understands that it is easier to fear something we respect, and her forces of darkness receive more respect than their counterparts in any children's fantasy series I've ever read.

Pun-oriented gamers will also find amusement in the double meanings of character names (These range from the dully obvious, like a Herbology teacher named Professor Sprout, to the very cunning, like a pet Phoenix named Fawkes), and the chuckle-worthy word games of the spell names (such as the "Tarantallegra" spell, which causes the victim's legs to start dancing rapidly and uncontrollably).

Formula Shmormula!

One of the most common dismissals of the Harry Potter series, I have noticed, is the tagline of "formulaic." More often than not, the people engaged in this name-calling haven't read the series. (It's an argument we've all heard before- "I don't need to see it to know it's blasphemy, I don't need to read it to know it's filth," etc.)

It is perhaps a measure of just how formulaic our entertainment structures have become (Sequels! Trilogies!) that any story which dares to appear in multiple parts gets hit with that accusation. If this series has a formula, that formula lies in preserving the cherished elements of the previous story while adding to and deepening them. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets feels just as cozily familiar as its predecessor, and simultaneously fresh and exciting. That's not "dull formula," that's a much rarer commodity referred to as "writing skill."

It's a sad commentary on our society that there are so many bitter, jaded Muggles eager to strike out at anything amusing and beautiful that creeps into their gray little world. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by letting the Harry Potter series cast its dark and delightful charms over you. When you've finished, you might even feel like digging out an old roleplaying game or spell supplement you haven't looked at in years and dreaming of a new application for it. I know that Ars Magica is dancing in the corner of my peripheral vision, despite my current near-total aversion to tabletop gaming.

It seems a little Harry Potter is a powerful thing.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)