I have all of the Harry Potter audio series, because I prefer to listen or watch fictional storie than to read them. Just a preference of mine. The audio series is great. I listened to them at home on my back patio and while in the car on a road trip. THEY ARE VERY DETAILED, ENGAGING AND JUST PLAIN FUN TO LISTEN TO.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is my favorite of all the HP books. Harry's third year of wizarding school begins in a climate of fear: a mass murderer is on the loose, and all signs indicate Harry is his next target. As if Harry didn't have enough to worry about, between trying to help Hagrid build a case against the execution of a hippogriff named Buckbeak, keeping his eyes peeled for the death omens that seem to be plaguing him, and defending himself from the effects of the horrible, Black Rider-esque Dementors sent to guard the school and track down the killer.

Yet Harry soon learns that he and the escaped murderer are inextricably linked. As the story builds toward their inevitable confrontation, Rowling throws in so many twists and turns that you can't be sure who's on what side, and nothing is what it appears. You won't be able to put this book down from Chapter 17 on, and as soon as you reach the end, you'll read it again.

On finishing all the Potter books, in retrospect I think this is the best, probably because it was the first one I read. I still remember reaching the end the first time through and being blown away at how intricately it was plotted! Now, of course, it's obvious that the entire story was thought out thoroughly, possibly even before pen met paper to write the first chapter of Philosopher's Stone. How J.K. Rowling ever sat on all those secrets for so many years without telling anyone is beyond me! For those like me, distraught at no more new Harry and looking for another complete fantasy world to get lost in, I'd recommend David Eddings' early books, The Belgariad and Malloreon, or The Pyn King, which is quirkier than Potter but enjoyable none the less.