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Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is by far my favorite book ever. Despite it being more than two thousand pages long I’ve read it more times than I have bothered keeping count and I can quote long passages.

This is also a very polarizing book. You either love it or you hate it. The people who hate it tend to find the Harry in this story an arrogant annoying know-it-all who in no way resembles an actual eleven year old. This is for good reason. As careful readers of the original series will remember the original Harry is a horcrux of Voldemort. In this series that horcrux soul fragment actually becomes part of Harry’s personality. Harry doesn’t act like an eleven year old because a significant fraction of him was born before World War 2. The premise of this book is basically “what if a mini-Voldemort was raised by kind science-loving parents instead?”. If you don’t get that within the first two chapters or so it’s probably just annoying to read. I also think this book is significantly funnier if you have a science background and you can understand the jokes. If you believe in souls, the supernatural, the afterlife and/or racism, or if you are so deeply attached to the original characters that you can’t stand Ron being portrayed as a kind and loyal but rather dumb dude, this book is not for you.

Unlike the original series this series also has a more diverse cast. You’ll be hard pressed to find a chapter, let alone an entire book, dedicated to a group of girls. Here the entire third book is about Hermione’s exploits. This book also is far more intellectual than the original series. I’ve had to read it at least three times before I found all the foreshadowing, cultural references and double meanings.

This book is rather unique because it has a double purpose. Not only is it just a fun reimagining of the Harry Potter saga, it is also trying to teach the reader a very specific worldview. “Ter lering ende vermaeck”. Expect short side tracks with infodumps that make you question your ethics, metaphysics, axiology, political leanings and so on.

This entire work has also been recorded as an extensive audiobook (67 listening hours) over at The Methods of Rationality Podcast.

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