Reviews

Definitely my least favorite of the trilogy. Tolkien goes way to hard on the old-timey nobleman speech patterns in this one, and far too little time is spent with the Hobbits. The scenes where Faramir tries to convince Eowin to be happy in a domestic life are painful. Major redeeming qualities are Sam's love for Frodo, Legolas and Gimli traveling the world together, and Frodo naming his pony Strider.

growingdark's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious 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

5.0

mayagraci's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

timothyo's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional inspiring relaxing slow-paced

4.25

mistressviolet's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark hopeful tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I will undoubtedly ruffle some feathers with my opinion of this book, but here goes...

I loved the first three books in the series (I'm also including The Hobbit). I ranked each of them as 5 stars. But this one just didn't hit the same notes for me. The writing is still great—lush and vivid. And there were moments when I was utterly captivated. But...

I had a lot of issues with this one. This book was slowwwwww to develop. The plot felt scattered and all over the place—many characters doing many things. There was a lot of politics, genealogy, and historical tales, which were distracting and long winded. There was less character development. And most of the book read like an epilogue, which was really strange, as it kept feeling like the book should be ending, but on and on it went.

I'm very glad to have read the whole series, but sadly this one was a miss for me.

abi_j's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring

5.0

judeandolin's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

"It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them."

More...