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A review by kartrick
The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
4.0
Thus endeth the fair chronicle.
[Forgive me, I just got in the spirit]
What can I say? The ending, was frankly one I didn't expect. I (and hopefully most others) would have thought the saga would end with Aragorn on the throne. Nay. That stage is only at 50% or so of the book. The last 42% is taken up by the appendix of course, but the tiny but vast 8% in between is taken up by something else. First I found it boring and thought of how it diminished the excellent series. But then, the absolute ending of the story (before the appendix) was depressing. I won't go further into that.
Now, when I finished reading the last part, my head was full of different thoughts. I managed to organise them and I realised something about the series. The Lord of the Rings, the story, is not about anything spectacular, it doesn't involve any mind-blowing events or things, or anything out of the world, in my honest opinion. On retrospection, it is just a chronicle about the endeavours of a good side against a horribly bad side, and how things changed in the world when everyone came together and decided to take action. It is how various beautiful creatures cooperated and helped others how they could. Man, I don't know how to explain it.
BUT. All this was weaved together with such skill, such passion and such dedication, that the end result was truly a masterpiece. Tolkien's sheer passion for his universe, though frequently irritating in the form of lengthy descriptions, and how he sticks to it, is truly something to marvel at. Even as I write this, thoughts come racing here and there and mix up my mind. There is one thing that disappointed me, though. I did not get descriptions of fighting and defeating the enemies as much as I liked. What happened mostly was he would tell us how many were killed and things like that. For me, a war story SHOULD tell us how different people were defeated and stuff.
This I'll say. The mere fact that the whole adventure brings to us an extremely unique universe and its beings, has a role in making the reader like it! This masterpiece, for masterpiece it is, will never be forgotten.
[Forgive me, I just got in the spirit]
What can I say? The ending, was frankly one I didn't expect. I (and hopefully most others) would have thought the saga would end with Aragorn on the throne. Nay. That stage is only at 50% or so of the book. The last 42% is taken up by the appendix of course, but the tiny but vast 8% in between is taken up by something else. First I found it boring and thought of how it diminished the excellent series. But then, the absolute ending of the story (before the appendix) was depressing. I won't go further into that.
Now, when I finished reading the last part, my head was full of different thoughts. I managed to organise them and I realised something about the series. The Lord of the Rings, the story, is not about anything spectacular, it doesn't involve any mind-blowing events or things, or anything out of the world, in my honest opinion. On retrospection, it is just a chronicle about the endeavours of a good side against a horribly bad side, and how things changed in the world when everyone came together and decided to take action. It is how various beautiful creatures cooperated and helped others how they could. Man, I don't know how to explain it.
BUT. All this was weaved together with such skill, such passion and such dedication, that the end result was truly a masterpiece. Tolkien's sheer passion for his universe, though frequently irritating in the form of lengthy descriptions, and how he sticks to it, is truly something to marvel at. Even as I write this, thoughts come racing here and there and mix up my mind. There is one thing that disappointed me, though. I did not get descriptions of fighting and defeating the enemies as much as I liked. What happened mostly was he would tell us how many were killed and things like that. For me, a war story SHOULD tell us how different people were defeated and stuff.
This I'll say. The mere fact that the whole adventure brings to us an extremely unique universe and its beings, has a role in making the reader like it! This masterpiece, for masterpiece it is, will never be forgotten.