It was worth the wait. And then some.

Fans of J.K. Rowling’s series about the boy wizard Harry Potter have been without a new book in the best-selling series for three years.

But all those starved for another taste of life in the wizarding world are getting a rich feast in “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” the deeply satisfying fifth book in the seven-book series about the orphaned Harry and the evil foe who has been trying to do away with him for years.

Rowling has always had a seemingly inexhaustible supply of imagination, humor and wit, and each of her previous books has had more than its share of adventure and mystery. This one does as well, but what makes it stand out is its scope.

Everything is bigger in this fifth book, starting with the number of pages — the 870-page tome is by far the longest of the series. At this rate, the seventh book might have to be published in two volumes.

And most striking, the range of emotions is larger, and not just Harry’s. Rowling’s tone started to darken in the fourth book, and that doesn’t stop here.

Yes, there are laughs and jokes between friends, pranks from the Weasley twins. But this isn’t the same 11-year-old Harry readers met in the first book. This Harry is now 15, a teenager who has survived several encounters with Lord Voldemort, the evil wizard who killed Harry’s parents and tried to kill Harry as a baby.

At the end of the fourth book, Harry had narrowly escaped from Voldemort, who regained the powers he lost when he tried to kill the boy all those years ago. Harry and his friends want to warn the wizarding world of the danger, but the powers-that-be don’t want to hear it.

This fifth book opens about a month later, with Harry back among nonmagical folk, desperate for any news about what Voldemort is up to. He’s frustrated by the lack of information from his wizard friends, wondering if they’re aren’t telling him anything because they don’t have faith in him.

Nothing is simple anymore, not even Harry’s relationships with the people he is closest to, and that’s where Rowling really extends this series past the genre of children’s stories.

Rowling must have some huge diagram that helps her keep track of all the characters and threads she has seamlessly woven into this ongoing tale, because the tapestry is incredibly complex. There are references to all of the other installments and, more importantly, answers to some questions fans have been wondering about since the first book.

That includes the most important one, which Harry and fans have wanted to know since the beginning: Why had Voldemort tried to kill him when he was a baby?

The response — and what it means for Harry’s future — is a doozy and will have legions of fans salivating for book six.