Lord of the Rings (Audio CD)

Have you ever read a book that pulls you in so completely that you become completely attached to it? When you read it, you feel good about yourself, but when you finish it, it's somewhat depressing – something is missing from your life. This, however, just causes you to read it all over again! This is what I found with the Tolkien classic 'The Lord Of The Rings'. But now can you imagine the same book, but in a fully radio-dramatised form? All your imaginings brought to life before your very eyes, um, ears? - The roots of obsession My love of 'The Lord Of The Rings' unsurprisingly started with me reading the book. Sure, it ...  Read the complete review

I should make it clear from the outset that this is NOT intended to be a review of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic fantasy 'Lord of the Rings' - rather it is specifically a review of the B.B.C audiobook of the series. However, for anyone who has not read the books, I will start by giving a brief summary of the story. The books are set in Middle Earth, a long lost world, inhabited by Elves, Dwarves, Wizards, Tree People, Orks and - most important of all - Hobbits.'Lord of the Rings' is the sequel to Tolkien's 'The Hobbit', in which a magic ring, with the power to render it's wearer invisible, comes into the possession of hobbit ...  Read the complete review

Back in 1981, the BBC undertook a particularly challenging project: To bring Tolkein's "The Lord of the Rings" to the listening masses. This is a huge piece of work, spanning 13 hours of listening time. If you missed it first time round, tapes and cds of the recording are availble - Amazan has the cds for about fifty eight pounds. Better still however is the news that radio Four are running the series again (You've missed the first two, but there is time to catch up.) This January onwards, you can hear the classic serialisation at 2.30pm every Saturday, in hour long blocks. ( 92-95 longwave or 198 fm) Well worth catching if you can. ...  Read the complete review

ABOUT THE CDs: Housed on an impressive 46 CDs, this is one of the most comprehensive audiobooks on the market. With such huge project to undertake, it could easily have gone wrong, but the narrator Rob Inglis does an excellent and passionate job of bringing the story back to life. Currently you can get the package at Amazon for £75. It was released as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations, and has exclusive artwork with it. ABOUT THE BOOK: J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is the best selling fictional book of all time, with an estimated 150 million people having read the author's work. It is an epic 1200 page story that has ...  Read the complete review

When Brian Sibley was given the opportunity to write a radio play of JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings his reaction must have been one of - in equal measure - excitement and panic. The three volume epic is without doubt one of the classic fantasy novels of all time but, well, it's a three volume epic! Even with thirteen hours of Radio 4 airtime to play with, a lot was going to have to be cut. Some diehards will be miffed by the dropping of 'minor' characters such as Tom Bombadil, but it must be remembered that to dramatise the entire book 'uncut' would have been totally impractical; it will be interesting to see how the three upcoming ...  Read the complete review