NEW YORK (AP) -- The books are out; the word is spreading.

"The last Potter is amazing. It has definitely gone way beyond what I
expected," Deb Kiehlmeier, 16, of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, said of "Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows," which was released Saturday worldwide.

"Harry Potter fans are always trying to predict what will happen next,
and J.K. Rowling always gives them something different," Kiehlmeier told
The Associated Press.

On Day 1 of the A.H. (After Harry) Era, reviewers and readers mourned
the end of a historic series that proved young people can still crave the
written word like the crispiest French fry. It was a day for the sleepless
and the sleepy to enjoy and to recall one last, fresh taste of Potter.

Critics bowed before Rowling's achievement. She was compared to the
greats of children's and fantasy authors -- J.R.R. Tolkien, L. Frank Baum,
Roald Dahl -- and held in awe for living up to the most intimidating
standards.

"To create such an extraordinary world, fill it with complicated
characters and convergent back stories is beyond the reach of most
writers," wrote the Los Angeles Times' Mary McNamara.

"To sustain that world and grow those characters over seven books filled
with plot twists, folklore and even a magical curriculum and then bring it
all to an articulate, emotionally wrenching conclusion -- that is a truly
epic quest."

On Saturday, bookstores around the world welcomed eager readers, young
and old, in glasses and capes, some shivering, some sweaty, all joined by
the thick hardback book with the opening words: "The two men appeared out
of nowhere, a few yards apart in the narrow, moonlit lane."

Some fans, warned by Rowling that two major characters would die, one of
them maybe Harry, could not bear to start at the beginning. After receiving
her copy at a Singapore bookstore, Adela Lim, 16, flipped right to the end
of the book, scanned the text furiously and exclaimed to her friends, "Oh
my god! Oh my god!"

"I am aghast at the ending," she said. "I've waited since the first book
all the way until now, so I can't wait anymore, I just want to find out the
ending."

Rowling, an unknown a decade ago when she introduced her magical
character in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," gave a midnight
reading to 500 competition-winning children in the grand Victorian
surroundings of London's Natural History Museum. Now richer than the queen,
she sat in a large wing-backed chair and read the opening pages --
description of a mysterious assignation, a clandestine meeting and
important news for Voldemort.

For many of the hardcore Potter-maniacs, the place to be was
Waterstone's bookstore on Piccadilly in central London. More than 5,000
people lined up for hours before the midnight opening, in a festive,
colorful line stretching around the block. Among the fans from as far away
as Finland and Mexico were dozens of witches and wizards, a couple of house
elves, a pair of owls and a woman dressed as Hogwarts castle.

About 100 devoted readers donned witches' hats, wizards' robes and other
costumes at a party early Saturday in the courtyard of Berlin's oldest
castle, the Zitadelle. As the book was finally released, a shower of sparks
lit up the castle's stone walls and a man dressed as Hagrid, the half-giant
game and grounds keeper at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,
pulled a copy of "Dark Hallows" from a golden kettle.

Even people in war zones are reading Harry Potter. About 50 foreigners
working in Afghanistan got their hands on a copy of "Harry Potter and the
Deathly Hallows" on its release date, beating many of their friends back
home.

John Connolly, an executive with Paxton International, a logistics and
moving company, bought 50 copies of the book in Dubai at 3:01 a.m.
Saturday, the exact time of the book's release in London. He boarded a
plane to Kabul a couple hours later with the books on board.

"Harry Potter is released worldwide at the same time. As a logistics
company based in Afghanistan for five years, we saw every reason to include
Afghanistan," said Connolly, who asked customers to donate a book to the
American University in Kabul in exchange for the free shipping on the book.
"It was not on the publisher's list, that's for sure."

Some readers, ironically, were tougher than the critics, especially
about the 759-page book's brief epilogue. One reader on the Potter fan site
www.mugglenet.com even suggested skipping the last chapter, or at least
reading it later so the rest of the book could be thoroughly enjoyed first.

For those who cannot wait to find out whether Harry lives, Potter fan
Julie Neal advises patience. In a customer review on Amazon.com, she
writes, "Regardless of the temptation, don't skip to the end. It doesn't
work. The answers to all those key questions everyone wants to know unfold
throughout the story."

Potter is a pastime and a business. Before the release date, booksellers
competed worldwide to sell the book, with some cutting the price by
two-thirds. Now, the re-sales are starting. On Amazon.com, some individuals
were hawking used copies, and some new ones, for as little as $16
(euro11.60), $1.99 less than Amazon's price. On eBay, where just a few days
ago a pre-release copy was worth $250 (euro181), "Deathly Hallows" was
offered Saturday for immediate purchase for $10.99 (euro8).

The first six Potter books have sold more than 325 million copies, and
in some places demand for "Deathly Hallows" is already exceeding supply.

Seven of the top 10 best sellers on Amazon.com were Potter books
Saturday, including a box set of the whole series coming out in September
with a list price of $195 (euro141). The British retailer Asda Group Ltd.,
which discounted "Deathly Hallows" to $10 (euro7.25), said Saturday it had
sold 450,000 copies of the book between midnight and 4 p.m. and was selling
it twice as fast as the previous Potter. Waterstone's said that at the
height of the overnight sales frenzy, staff members were serving 20
customers a second.