Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Review

I finished the audiobook of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I saw the movie and remembered a fair bit of it, so like The Sorcerer's Stone was not particularly surprised at how the story unfolded. I've come to enjoy seeing a number of returning characters in the Harry Potter books, as well as the introduction of several new characters. Some spoilers ahead.

I've listened to the first three on audiobook and, of the three, feel like this one had the best pace. It moved pretty quickly and introduced a lot of activity throughout. I like that Harry ran off from the Dursley's in the beginning and got to use the invisibility cloak again. Hermoine's class schedule was a good mini-mystery throughout, and saving the day with the time turner. I really enjoyed that Ron's rat became an important character.

I was happy with The Chamber of Secrets and their being an showdown between Harry and Tom Riddle/Voldemort. Voldemort was central to the first two books and I thought that was a good way to tie up his involvement.

That's not to say I didn't expect him to be in any future books--I did. Voldemort killed Harry's parents, and that has to be something that is constantly in Harry's mind. However, does Voldemort need to be the bad guy again? Batman fights more villians than just the Joker, Superman fights more villians than just Lex, and even Axel Foley dealt with different bad guys!

Of course, what really makes me groan is that I know he continues to be the villian in the remaining books. Sigh. Should I even bother listening to those?