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4.46 AVERAGE
4.46 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Everyone should read LOTR!! If I could give it more than 5 stars I would! You’ll laugh, cry, contemplate your life, and you’ll do it all as you journey with Frodo and his companions. You should stop reading this review and just start reading LOTR now!
When you stay in such a beautiful world for so long is hard to let it go. No matter how many times you've done it before.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
3 stars for the book and 1 for its influence and legacy.
Sunday Times in its review wrote: "The English-speaking world is divided into those who have read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and those who are going to read them." Well, I haven't read The Hobbit but have laboured through the movies which IMO was way longer than it would take to actually read the book, and hence consider myself finally to be in the former category.
I first attempted at reading LOTR during high school when I read The Fellowship of the Ring, but couldn't continue due to reasons lost in time. Now, before I read The Dark Tower series or The Wheel of Time, I thought I should finally finish this one so I started again from the first page. But I think herein lied my problem. I did not read this one early enough. Having read a bit of fantasy post-Tolkein, sometimes going back to the one that started it all is not always the best experience. It's not like I didn't enjoy it, but I did not end up being a Middle Earth fanboy as people who read it earlier in their fantasy journey quite often do.
I feel the biggest hurdle in loving LOTR is the language. It is not written conventionally. It feels quite textbookish, which I think might not appeal to all. Also, some parts have not aged well and some feel quite cheeky and cringy. But as a comment on Reddit said, "You can't read Tolkien like you read Sanderson." and I couldn't agree more.
1) The first part, The Fellowship of the Ring was the slowest and the most boring. There were very few moments that I liked.
2) I might be in the minority, but I think The Two Towers is the best of the three. This is where the story picked up. The narrative splits into three and things really start to happen.
3) The Return of the King while concluding the story, was not as tight as the previous part. I believe that telling the story in parallel instead of splitting it like The Two Towers would have been better in this case.
One criticism of Tolkien is that he used the entire first part to set up the story and then just wouldn't end the story for another 6 lengthy chapters after The Ring is destroyed. But if you consider that Tolkien never thought of it as a trilogy but as a single book, having the first third of your story as a setup and one-tenth post-climax is nothing out of place. However, if this is 400 plus 100 pages of extremely small print, you can see why some people find it really hard to scale this Everest.
The influence of Tolkien and the legacy of his work cannot be overstated. He is so meticulous in his details that it almost feels like you are reading an actual mythology. Also, if you strip away all the songs and descriptions of mountains and landscapes and plants and trees and history and whatnot, the underlying story is still magnificent and fascinating. Though right now I think I would take my leave from Middle Earth and it would be quite some time if I ever return to it at all.
Sunday Times in its review wrote: "The English-speaking world is divided into those who have read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and those who are going to read them." Well, I haven't read The Hobbit but have laboured through the movies which IMO was way longer than it would take to actually read the book, and hence consider myself finally to be in the former category.
I first attempted at reading LOTR during high school when I read The Fellowship of the Ring, but couldn't continue due to reasons lost in time. Now, before I read The Dark Tower series or The Wheel of Time, I thought I should finally finish this one so I started again from the first page. But I think herein lied my problem. I did not read this one early enough. Having read a bit of fantasy post-Tolkein, sometimes going back to the one that started it all is not always the best experience. It's not like I didn't enjoy it, but I did not end up being a Middle Earth fanboy as people who read it earlier in their fantasy journey quite often do.
I feel the biggest hurdle in loving LOTR is the language. It is not written conventionally. It feels quite textbookish, which I think might not appeal to all. Also, some parts have not aged well and some feel quite cheeky and cringy. But as a comment on Reddit said, "You can't read Tolkien like you read Sanderson." and I couldn't agree more.
1) The first part, The Fellowship of the Ring was the slowest and the most boring. There were very few moments that I liked.
2) I might be in the minority, but I think The Two Towers is the best of the three. This is where the story picked up. The narrative splits into three and things really start to happen.
3) The Return of the King while concluding the story, was not as tight as the previous part. I believe that telling the story in parallel instead of splitting it like The Two Towers would have been better in this case.
One criticism of Tolkien is that he used the entire first part to set up the story and then just wouldn't end the story for another 6 lengthy chapters after The Ring is destroyed. But if you consider that Tolkien never thought of it as a trilogy but as a single book, having the first third of your story as a setup and one-tenth post-climax is nothing out of place. However, if this is 400 plus 100 pages of extremely small print, you can see why some people find it really hard to scale this Everest.
The influence of Tolkien and the legacy of his work cannot be overstated. He is so meticulous in his details that it almost feels like you are reading an actual mythology. Also, if you strip away all the songs and descriptions of mountains and landscapes and plants and trees and history and whatnot, the underlying story is still magnificent and fascinating. Though right now I think I would take my leave from Middle Earth and it would be quite some time if I ever return to it at all.
Leggere questo libro è stata un’odissea, ma è impossibile non dare cinque stelline: la struttura, la lingua, lo stile, la ricerca storica dietro a tutti gli usi e costumi dei vari popoli che vivono il romanzo, per non parlare delle lingue inventate (sintassi, grammatica ecc). Un capolavoro sotto ogni punto di vista.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes