KEY POINTS:
The boy wizard with the big destiny goes out with a bang as stupendous as any fan could wish for in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last blast of J.K. Rowling's blockbuster children's book series.
Rowling rounds it all off with a superb, action-packed ending and reaps the pay-off for the years spent meticulously planning her saga.
The showdown at Hogwarts between the young hero and his nemesis, Lord Voldemort, is a choreographic feat - lights, camera, Accio! - worthy of a Hollywood extravaganza, as almost the full cast is brought on to sign off with a flourish.
After seeming to have come to the limits of her armoury in the long-winded, gloomy books five and six, Rowling turns up her powers of invention again, proving a boarding school can indeed be the battleground for a ripping yarn of good versus evil.
But the reader is tested by having to plough through the dreary first half of the book, in which Harry is weighed down by confusion, indecision and the clunky diversions Rowling use to deliver revelations.
One thing she has never mastered is the art of parallel plots. Many major characters, such as the double agent Snape, are frustratingly missing for most the book.
The Deathly Hallows starts out well with an exciting battle between the Order of the Phoenix and Voldemort's Axis of Evil.
A wedding scene reminds us that Rowling often lets her humour and wit be overshadowed by more grandiose ambitions. She is at her best when creating eccentrics like the loony Lovegoods and devices such as Hermione's handbag, which really does hold everything plus the kitchen sink.
But Harry is stuck cooling his heels, fighting with his friends and getting nowhere for about 300 prosaic pages.
The Hallows of the title are three objects which enable their owner to overcome death. Harry must choose whether to seek these out or continue to hunt for the Horcruxes, the ancient artefacts in which Voldemort has stored the pieces of his soul.
That's a lot of objects to keep track of, but this is another of Rowling's strengths - laying clues, creating enigmas and suddenly bringing the seemingly insignificant to light.
From here on, it's a cracker. The showdown is well-paced, the fireworks interspersed with Harry's interior struggles as the champion Seeker faces a heart-stopping betrayal and the understanding of what his task truly is.
The answers are as satisfying as a Hogwarts school feast, and Rowling didn't need to tack on the twee, entirely predictable coda. For as well as having cooler clothes and music than the magical races, we Muggles have the power of imagination.
