Whereas the first two books were pretty good, the third book was far better. I think it is at this point that the series took a serious turn for the better. We start to get some excellent character development which will setup the future books, and the introduction of Serius Black ...... priceless. I love that we finally got some really in depth information about Harry's father and his "gang", it really starts to flesh out the past and answer lots of questions that have been building up since the first book.