Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix swooped into bookstores worldwide, including Malaysia, where eager fans waited in line at selected bookshops to be among the first to buy the boy wizard's fifth adventure in print.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix opened on 12 July 2007.
The rebellion begins! Lord Voldemort is back, but the Ministry of Magic tries to keep a lid on the truth – including appointing a new, power-hungry Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts. Ron and Hermione convince Harry to secretly train students for the wizarding war ahead. A terrifying showdown between good and evil awaits
At King's Cross, the line of 100 or so eager fans trailed from the store into the station's cavernous arrival hall and contained an equal smattering of children, parents and Potter-mad adults.
"She has made a hero of somebody who could have become a victim,'' said Gillian Hammerton, coyly declining to disclose her age. Like Harry, she was orphaned at an early age. "It's marvelous for someone to have empathy with how a child can feel when they are not in the bosom of a family.'' As Harry's daring exploits against the evil Lord Voldemort burst upon the waiting world, book store managers appeared as excited as their customers.
"I am very excited. This does not happen often in the world of literature,'' said Gary Kibble, director of books for WH Smith.
More than 100 of the chain's stores opened at midnight, with sleepovers, costume competitions and even professional falconers on hand with owls to give the launch a Hogwarts aura.
In England, 7,680 copies of the book were stolen from a truck parked outside a warehouse late Sunday night. Earlier this month, a print worker was sentenced to 180 hours community service for attempting to sell three chapters of the book to a tabloid newspaper.
Rowling, speaking in Edinburgh just after midnight, said she was pleased that so little about the story has escaped the secrecy.
"I don't think anything crucial has got out, so I am happy. I think it's miraculous, given the number of books that we produced and the number of people involved,'' she said.
Harry is 15 in the new book, and Rowling has disclosed that he will get to be a real adolescent, with his share of anger and some confusion over girls. There is much emotional interplay in the new book, which goes well beyond the children's genre.
Early reviews praised the fifth installment. USA Today cited Rowling's "wonderful, textured writing.'' The Associated Press said, "It was worth the wait. And then some.''
Harry was 11 in the first volume, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'' -- released in the United States as "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.'' Published in 1997, it was followed each year by another adventure -- "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,'' "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'' and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.''
Rowling's four Potter books have sold an estimated 192 million copies worldwide and have been published in at least 55 languages and distributed in more than 200 countries.
Blockbuster movies were made of the first two books and the movie stemming from the third will be released next year.
Amazon.com had 1 million advance orders for the fifth book.
