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4.46 AVERAGE
4.46 AVERAGE
Amazing books... so detailed you can read them over and over again.
As someone who grew up on and loved the movies I loved seeing the source material for it. Although the way it was written was a different standard then today it was still plenty enjoyable to read.
There isn't much to be said about The Lord of the Rings. It is fantastic and Serkis's performance in the audiobook elevates it to even greater heights. And yes, it is okay to skip the songs.
adventurous
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Hardly a perfect novel. It's casually sexist and racist in the way that novels from the past tend to be (not to excuse it, but simply let's lay it bare and play the cards as they lay). Which is disappointing because for all it's faults (he does go on about the mountains and the trees a bit, doesn't he?) it's a fine sinecure to today's grim and gritty fantasy tales. Everything works out just fine for everyone in the end, but coming from a guy that lived through two world wars, can you blame him for wanting to put a bow on the suffering he had borne witness to? Also, it strikes me again, this third time around, how tragic Frodo is. He suffers and suffers and then suffers some more, only to end up broken and forgotten by the very people he saved. An apt metaphor coming from a former soldier and father of a soldier. Also, more broadly, probably more true to the experiences of the people who do and suffer the most to turn the cogs of history. The ending frustrated me at sixteen, satisfied me at twenty-two and here at nearly thirty-three breaks my heart. Reading this as all one volume unbroken adds to the sense of scope, although Tolkien's manner of just showing the tiniest, smallest corner of his story makes it seem like things are just happening for no reason when the reasons have been seeded in books and stories you just haven't read yet. Still, even as slow and plodding it can be in the middle (and boy, is the middle a slog) it's still a pretty gripping read. I'm sure in short order something truly worthy will come along to supplant it (not you, A Song of Fire and Ice), but for now a comforting adventure for people a little lost in a world seemingly getting darker by the minute.
Tough vocabulary, but a fascinating story of an adventure with a ring that turns people violent and selfish. For more you must read on...
These are so good and so well known that I feel they don't even need a review. They can be difficult to get through, but they are well worth it. I also have seen some people who think the movies are better, but I wholeheartedly disagree. Give the books a good chance and one you're into them a good ways, you'll see.
As always this is my favorite book by my favorite author. I've read It more than I can remember in my short life especially by hobbit reckoning. Reading it again is always a journey to me that feels like coming home to a place forgotten and familiar all the same.
The ending always leaves me with sorrow and with hope and a need to walk in woods again.
" I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil."
The ending always leaves me with sorrow and with hope and a need to walk in woods again.
" I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil."
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No