Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Executive Summary: This is my least favorite book the series. Probably closer to 3.5 than 4, but since the series is great, I rounded up.

It's the weakest of the 7 books in my opinion.

Jim Dale Audio book: I did the Jim Dale audio book first. It was good. Dale is an excellent reader and does a descent job with the voices. I wish I had taken better notes on which voices I liked or didn't to compare with the Fry version a bit.

Stephen Fry Audio book: I liked Fry more for this book than I did for the last one. I particularly liked his voices for Dobby and Lockheart. His Snape voice still bothers me, but that's pretty much because I want Alan Rickman's voice.

Which Audio book? I've decided I'm no longer going to try to compare Fry to Dale to determine which is better. Why? It really doesn't matter to me. I think they are both a very good, though very different. I find little value it ranking them. People will have their favorites, but just because you like one over the other doesn't mean the same will apply to everyone. Overall I don't think you can go wrong with either version.

Full Review
It's a toss up who is more annoying, Dobby the house elf or Professor Lockhart. Neither are unlikable in the way Malfoy and his family are.

I suppose both are supposed to be annoying, but Dobby's scenes are especially tedious. He does redeem himself later in the series however. Moaning Myrtle is a bit annoying as well, but far behind the other 2.

The flying car is a highlight, but that's about it I think. There really aren't any cool additions to the existing lore. It has the weakest antagonist too.

The story has some interesting elements to it, but overall there is just something about this book that has kept it at the bottom of my list on the series.

Maybe it's all the annoying characters, or maybe it's simply a result of the quality of the other books. Still, this like the rest of the series can be a lot of fun is a quick read.