Showing posts with label The Order of the Phoenix. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Order of the Phoenix. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 24, 2026

Repository: a list of all connections between The Hallmarked Man and Order of the Phoenix.

I realized as I was working on a recent alchemical post that I had never compiled all the connections between The Hallmarked Man and Order of the Phoenix in one place. So, I am setting this post up as a repository, and will update it if any others show up.  

Suggestions for links to other Harry Potter books are also welcome.  See here for the echoes to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

THM links to other even-numbered books can be found here. 

THM links to Career of Evil and Troubled Blood can be found here. 

Onto the full list!

Thursday, September 18, 2025

The Hallmarked Man: The Strike series answer to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child? (Spoilers for both!)

The thematic connections between the first seven Cormoran Strike books and the corresponding Harry Potter books is something I and other Strike enthusiasts have written about extensively.  Some examples include:

The thematic similarities between the first seven Strike books and the Harry Potter series makes me think it is highly likely that, as reported by UK Sunday Times Arts editor Richard Brooks in February 2014, Rowling initially planned the Strike series as seven books. The Times was, after all, the paper that used forensic literary analysis to document similarities between Cuckoo's Calling and other Rowling works, and it seems unlikely they would publish that claim unless they had reason to believe it was true, although their source of information may have been out of date  Galbraith immediately denied that seven books were planned and by July 2014, announced there would be more than seven books, perhaps even an open-ended series.  By April 2023, the author had decided the series would be complete at ten. The simplest explanation is, after being outed much sooner than planned, "Galbraith" rethought the series plan. And, as we well know, whether writing as Rowling or Galbraith, this author is selective about how much of the planning process is shared. 

So, is there any point in considering the Parallel Series Hypothesis, now that we've hit #8 in the Strike Series?  Find out after the jump. 

Sunday, February 23, 2025

The Phoenix or the Flame? Book launch on February 24th!

 


I am pleased to announce the publication of a new Harry Potter scholarly anthology, to which I contributed the first chapter. It is available from Amazon US and Amazon UK. 

My chapter is "From Dark Dementors to Luna's Light: Brightening a nigredo through positive psychology."  This was also the topic of my Harry Potter Academic Conference talk, which is viewable here:

Update:  
The editor stitched together a free "virtual symposium" highlighting parts of the collection.