The Fellowship of the Ring

"Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens."

I really had a hard time with this book. I had to switch from the e-book to the audiobook version at times because just reading the e-book felt like moving through quicksand - I was trying to move ahead but I was getting nowhere fast. A lot of the contents of this book can be summed up as 'walking and talking' - nothing truly happens and if about 40% of the story would have been cut, nothing would be missed.

It definitely has its moments and has beautiful prose and poetry, and lessons we can still learn from today.

"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement."

And more than anything, this feels like just the set-up. Like the preamble to a dark and eventful journey yet to come. It's only the beginning of the path to Mordor. I am excited to see where it goes, and hope it will be a little bit more eventful than what this first book in the trilogy has to offer.

I want to end this review by saying Sam Gamgee is everything. What a cutie, a 10/10 friend.

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7/10 - looking at it with a modern eye, it's far from perfect. The real adventure is yet ahead.