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A review by angrywombat
The War of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
2.0
Eh, I'm going to be consigned to a special hell for saying this - but this book has been the worst part of the Lord of the Rings series so far.
I mean, this is the "exciting part - all the battles and action, violence and horror all concentrated into the one book - where all the tension and conspiracies were leading up to...
But Tolkien just doesn't write action very well (In my opinion - I've probably been spoiled by a lot of my more modern reading, but still) What is even worse is that on a number of occasions the action is related 2nd hand - one character telling another about what had happened - which completely deflates all tension in the scene.
Basically this follows the two hobbits Merry and Pippin as they are dragged into the oncoming war - one goes with Gandalf to Minas Tirith and becomes the page of Lord Denethor (boss of Minas Tirth, and so all of Gondor), while the other sticks with the Rohirrim in their covert attempt to get to Minas Tirth without being seen by enemy spies.
There were some great callbacks with Faramir coming back to his father, and being surprised by seeing Pippin, but overall this is pretty much the "dark part" of the series - the "good guys" dont really win, but survive the Battle for Minas Tirith, and then are faced with the fact of being outnumbered 100-1 by all the rest of Sauron's armies.
Oh, and the suicides, and the use of magical fatal depression as a weapon.
Its still a good book, but I found myself putting the book down at chapter breaks to go do other things, and not feeling a pressing urge to pick up the book again. But I look forward to getting back to Frodo and Sam,
I mean, this is the "exciting part - all the battles and action, violence and horror all concentrated into the one book - where all the tension and conspiracies were leading up to...
But Tolkien just doesn't write action very well (In my opinion - I've probably been spoiled by a lot of my more modern reading, but still) What is even worse is that on a number of occasions the action is related 2nd hand - one character telling another about what had happened - which completely deflates all tension in the scene.
Basically this follows the two hobbits Merry and Pippin as they are dragged into the oncoming war - one goes with Gandalf to Minas Tirith and becomes the page of Lord Denethor (boss of Minas Tirth, and so all of Gondor), while the other sticks with the Rohirrim in their covert attempt to get to Minas Tirth without being seen by enemy spies.
There were some great callbacks with Faramir coming back to his father, and being surprised by seeing Pippin, but overall this is pretty much the "dark part" of the series - the "good guys" dont really win, but survive the Battle for Minas Tirith, and then are faced with the fact of being outnumbered 100-1 by all the rest of Sauron's armies.
Oh, and the suicides, and the use of magical fatal depression as a weapon.
Its still a good book, but I found myself putting the book down at chapter breaks to go do other things, and not feeling a pressing urge to pick up the book again. But I look forward to getting back to Frodo and Sam,