Review: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An interesting use of fanfiction. Starts out with an entertaining what-if (Harry's aunt married a professor instead of Mr. Dursley, and Harry grew up learning science), then uses that as a basis for exploring various rationalist ideas.

This goes on for a while, and isn't badly done, but then the author gets caught up in telling the story, and the exploration of ideas recedes a bit into the background. Essentially, it shifts from "Harry is a little know-it-all who schools everyone else in rationalism" to "Harry realises he doesn't know it all, and that emotions like loyalty, love and friendship have their own power."

I was signed up for several forms of notification that should have updated me when the story was updated, but I only learned by accident that it had been finished. I haven't got round to reading the end, and probably won't for a while, but I'm reviewing it to get it off my "Currently Reading" list.

I might well give it a re-read from the beginning at some point so I can see it as a whole. Far from flawless, but an interesting thing to even attempt.

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