The Lord of the Rings
Ratings846
Average rating4.5
I'm still reading in the introduction and this book is fascinating. My book is being returned due to due date, but I'd love to get my hands on this again. (02/07/2012)
The Lord of the Rings is the epic. One cannot have a serious discussion about fantasy if they do not mention The Lord of the Rings. Many recent competitors have popped up (Harry Potter and Game of Thrones), but The Lord of the Rings will stand the test of time. Centuries from now, our descendants will point to The Lord of the Rings as the most epic tale ever written.
I concede it can be slow to read sometimes. But most of the book is very entertaining. History fans like myself will marvel at the depth of the world Tolkien creates, rich with millennia of its own lore.
There are also common criticisms with which I agree. The absolute distinction between good and evil is one. Generally, such a distinction will seem cheesy in many normal novels. Tolkien manages to still make an incredibly story in spite of this polarity.
An absolute classic of fantasy literature. Glad I took the time to sit down and read it, time for the two towers.
This review is reposted from elsewhere and primarily about ROTK:
I deeply enjoyed reading the first two LOTR books, after an encounter in my youth that put me off of them. Yet, for whatever reason, ROTK stands alone. I inhaled this book. I basically didn't put it down once I'd picked it up. Did I spend my holiday Monday off of work, drinking wine, following my cat around my apartment, reading it to her out loud, and in character? None will ever know for sure.
A lot of folks apparently didn't like The Rings of Power show. I really enjoyed it, and I'm grateful to it and to the House of R podcast for getting me to try reading these books again. What a delight!
Hear ye! Hear ye! Step right up and allow me to tell you about how freaking awesome this book is. Since this book was technically supposed to be one story and not three, I am willing to say that this is definitely the best single volume fantasy ever. Especially if you include the fact that he wrote this almost completely from his own imagination without any help from other fantasy authors or movies to gain inspiration. I wouldn't say that it was the best fantasy series though because there's just so many good ones especially since they have more books written to continue the lore. I will say that his battle scenes are subpar but that's okay. His world building and folklore is top notch. I apparently hated the first book when I read it last year and gave it 2 stars...what a freaking “ruhtard” that guy was. Thankfully I have redeemed myself into a new man, have changed the review appropriately, and can enjoy this wonderful book but now I'm pissed at the movies for being so different from the book. Saruman's end in the book was so much better than in the movie!!
So I watched the movies ages ago and loved them, but despite having had the books for ages (years!) I'd never got round to reading them!
I finally have, although when I say ‘read' I mean I've listened to the audiobooks (saying that, having the books myself, I did follow along in the books). They were narrated by Rob Inglis and they were soooo good!
Listening to all three books from start to finish took me ten days. I'm not sure how long it would've taken if I'd read them by myself (a lot longer than that, is my guess!).
I think alot of the enjoyment of listening to it came from Rob adapting his voice to all the different characters! He did such a brilliant job of that. Well, that and bringing the story to life!
I'm sure I would have enjoyed reading on my own, but hearing the narration was a 100% better with the voiceovers!
Another reason for enjoying listening to the books was because it meant hearing the correct pronounciations of characters, places, etc.
[Reread 14/01/24] “Well, I'm back.”
This is my favourite novel, and it has been for the last fifteen years. I love it deeply and there is likely nothing I can say that someone else hasn't already said more intelligently and articulately.
That being said, I would urge anyone who has finished this book and hasn't read Tolkien's poem ‘The Sea Bell' to give that a read too. It has the subtitle ‘Frodo's Dreme', which does the job of explaining exactly why you should; Frodo is so distant by the end of this book that getting this small glimpse into his headspace is so deeply sad. This novel is deeply sad!
There is a sense of grief at the core of this story that is never fully captured in any of its adaptations. But simultaneously, it's so bittersweet that I have lump in my throat and an ache in my chest by the time I turn the last page. Whole and hollow at the same time. Contradictory, maybe, but to me, it's never been a story so much about good vs evil as it is about hope and despair, intermingled.
So less a review and more of an observation I suppose. Again, read The Sea Bell. I love this book.
There's probably not much more to say about Tolkien and Lord of the Rings than what's already been said a thousand times over by a million different people, but nonetheless I'm going to give my 2 cents anyway.
This one was an interesting one for me. Tolkien and LoTR had always been (to me) hailed as an untouchable work of pure fantasy and imagination. Tolkien himself, godlike in name and fantasy fiction personified. At least in my circles, and the reputation that precedes the name, Tolkien appeared to me as the culmination, the high point, of the fantasy genre.
So when I cracked it open at last and found flaws in the work, I was a little confused at first. I suppose it's kind of like opening up the Bible expecting pure and literal God-like perfection, but finding story and allegory about the shortcomings of humankind instead. It's not bad per se, it's just not what everyone around you tells you it's about.
In a way, this may represent the end of childhood naivety: doctors give perfect diagnosis and prognosis, parents always know what's best for their children and themselves, society is always looking out for you, etc. etc. In much the same way a child grows up, I begun the journey wide-eyed and a little ignorant on the nature of the world. But as we all go along, we learn things aren't always as they seem. Not everything is perfect, and there's a dark side to life (at times). Just is. Always has been; always will be. Nothing's perfect – everyone and everything has flaws.
So with that, I realised and accepted Lord of the Rings isn't perfect. It, like everything else, was created by a human being. With all his own biases and flaws. But, of course, with all their strengths too.
This in a way allowed me to see Tolkien and LoTR for what it really is. One of many, many books out there in the world. But, at the end of the day, regardless of all that it does, is still, just a book. I would say in fact it made me appreciate LoTR, and books in general, in a different light. I'm not sure why yet, but it has somehow left me with a greater sense of appreciation for books. Unfortunately I can't see that being an intention of the book, so I won't bump it's score for it.
But without further ado, I'm giving Lord of the Rings overall a 3.5-star. Despite it's flaws, I still enjoyed it. So let's break it down:
The GOOD:
- Tolkien is an excellent writer. His prose is fun to read, purely for the craft in and of itself. Even when the story drags, his skill keeps it alive (although sometimes barely)
- The world building. Although I'm not fussed about this in books since I like many books that aren't particularly fleshed out, Tolkien has done an incredible job. The people's, the languages, the history... it's all great. Very fascinating and fun to learn about. Unfortunately, a lot of it isn't actually in this book. See below.
-The Fellowship of the Ring is an incredible read. It's some of the most fun I've had with a book in a long time. It's magical, it's thrilling, and really gives you a sense of the fear and scope of the world. It's a really fun adventure book.
The MEH:
- The Two Towers is... well... meh. For me it marks the begin of the decline. It's still good, and I did enjoy it a lot. But as far as internal consistency goes, it's not as good as Fellowship in my option. The pacing speeds up, the characters are split apart, and this means each group gets their own half of the book. We don't spend as much time with everyone and things start to get skipped over. References begin to be referenced without much explanation, Google searches begin being required, re-reading of passages is needed. The world building starts to get in the way of the journey.
- The length of the book. This book either had to be a lot smaller (to keep it tight knit), or a lot bigger (to keep the pacing and detail the same as the beginning of the book). Instead it tries to do both and loses some of its identity along the way.
-The appendices. The appendices are fleshed out, and fairly interesting. However, the fact I have to refer to them at the end of the novel so I can get the rest of the story that gets skipped over is a little jarring. It was cool it's there, I like the idea of appendices as general further information. But to have to read it so I know what was happening in the rest of Middle-earth wasn't my favourite thing. But it was by no means a bad thing.
The BAD:
- The Return of the King isn't very good. King continues what Towers begun. Pacing speeds up even further, even more references are being made, things are brought up with not enough explanation, even more Google searches are being entered, time absolutely flies by. Whereas Fellowship describes each day on the road fully fleshed out, King will just skip days out a time in a single sentence. Internal consistency of the book from Parts 1 -3 are completely lost here with the pacing. King completely ignores the rest of Middle-earth. Which would be fine, if the story remained about the Fellowship, but it balloons to encompass everything. Which it simply cannot do with the structure of the rest of the book. And it suffers for it. We have no idea what's happening anywhere else, but it feels like we should. The Dwarves, the Elves, anywhere that's not Gondor? No idea. Had to Google it and read appendices that fill in the rest of the story that's missing. It's redeeming feature is that it concludes the story begun in the Fellowship.
- The ending. I'm all for a happy ending, but this was absolutely ridiculous. In a story where there's an attempt for so much realism; the history, the language etc., my goodness is the ending so over the top. It's pretty much 5 chapters to say “and everyone lived happily ever after (except like maybe one or two people, but apart from that, everyone lives in complete and utter pure bliss”). Middle-earth is such a rich fantasy world, the ending of LoTR doesn't do it justice.
To sum up:
The Fellowship of the Ring: 4.5 / 5 Stars
The Twin Towers: 3.5 / 5 Stars
The Return of the King: 2 / 5 Stars.
4.5... Almost a ten! Not 5/5 because the first book was not quite as great as the latter two.
Finally finished reading one of the greatest fantasy series of all time and it definitely did not disappoint! This series was amazing and although it took me quite a long time to read, I absolutely loved it.
As much as I love the LOTR trilogy, this series of books were the hardest ever to finish for me. However discovering the scenes that never made into the movies made it worthwhile.
A phenomenal work and one that I could hardly do justice to with a review. Lord of the Rings is the sort of book that will last for ages to come and it's characters and stories should be passed on from generation to generation.
“Sono tornato a casa”
Penso che il più grande merito di Tolkien sia quello di far vivere, attraverso le sue parole, un amore per luoghi mai visti e conosciuti. La grandezza sta proprio in quelle brevi descrizioni di un paesaggio, di un sentiero o di un albero. Momenti di pura evasione inebriante, una visione celestiale. Se date il giusto tempo, e il giusto peso ad ogni parola o frase, è possibile che creerete ricordi abbastanza intensi da diventare indimenticabili. Ricordi di momenti mai avvenuti.
It's a timeless classic and a cornerstone of the genre. While elements may seem cliched, it is the originator of many, and the popularizer of others. You'll see into a lush, fleshed-out world that seems genuinely alive, and that's both frustrating and wonderful all at once. I read this for the first time as a young teen, and found skipping the essays at the beginning rather useful for my first go-around.
Who doesn't like [b:the lord of the rings 34 The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, Part 1) J.R.R. Tolkien http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1156043001s/34.jpg 3204327]? Well... who doesn't like it, of those who have ACTUALLY read it?
I am not usually a huge fan of fantasy novels, but I had to make an exception for Tolkien.
Gelezen, en herlezen, en herlezen en herlezen. Ik zou er al zijn punten aan gegeven hebben waren het niet van Tom Bombadil, en die eindeloze liederen.
Wat me verbaasde, bij het bezien van de films, trouwens, is dat de overgrote meerderheid van de uitstekende dialogen rechtstreeks uit het origineel komen.