Ebe

As HP reader without knowledge of the other stuff, I didn’t get half of what was going on… but even so, it lacks anchoring references, so I doubt those who do know the other universes had an easy time finding their foot in the series either.

Also, dialogue speaker confusion continued, and the author shows he’s American.

★★⯪☆☆

The language problems are coming back, American vernacular is creeping in, and the crossovery things take large chunks of the chapters… but thankfully, we can still follow Harry and friends. Still very quick, almost ex machina…

Best antagonist-Hermione story I’ve ever read.

But in the last chapter, things turn towards the cross-overy and get really weird. Some of it lacks explanations which other parts have, this could have been woven in better. I also have the feeling they get their spoils too easily… and what’s with the WTF way to interfere with actions though a viewing(!) sphere?

The dialogue problem from the first book is still pertinent, not as much though, and the language has somewhat improved as well.

This is seriously good, and the crossover part doesn’t even hinder… it just introduces Loki, whom I know-ish as norse god already, so this works for me. Great story with unexpected turns.

Now the downsides, and I had to seriously downgrade the rating for them:

The author’s grasp on language is not good, neither in general (confusing “of” and “have”, for example) nor audience-specific (such as the opposite meaning of “to table a discussion” between proper English and American).

Dialogues are largely unlabelled, making it extremely hard to impossible to figure out who’s talking.

All in all, though, thanks Mitticus for the recommendation!

PS: The questions about the diary are answered halfway through the second book in the series, in case one wonders (I know I did).