| Product: |
The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien |
| Date: |
13/01/06 (62 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Great Story, Cannot be put down, Great Characters, Excellent Ending
Disadvantages: VERY LONG - 3 Books
I apologise in advance that this will be a very long review, this is simply because there is so much information that can be included on a review of Lord of the Rings (and as i love them so much I want to share my thoughts). Should you not want to know the story too much, then jump ahead to My Opinion, where I cover what I think about the book and ignore the section on ABOUT THE BOOKS.
Another thing to say here, is that you should read THE HOBBIT (although a childrens books) first as this is really the first book in the story. The Lord of the Rings is much easier to understand if you have read THE HOBBIT. But enough on that, I will do a seperate review on The Hobbit later.
About the Author:
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien who was born in 1892 and died in 1973 was a major scholar of the English language, specialising in Old and Middle English. He was twice Professor of Anglo-Saxon (Old English) at the University of Oxford. He is most famous for writing the books - The Hobbit in 1937 and The Lord of the Rings in 1954-1955. He was born on 3 January 1982 in Africa before moving at a young age to the West Midlands.
About the books:
OK, now where to start when reviewing a book by J R R Tolkien.
Firstly I should mention that this should be really 3 Reviews as there are 3 books. These are:
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
The Return of the King
In order to make complete sense and keep some structure to this review, I plan to break the review down into each book to make it a little simpler and explain what each book is about, but highlight my opinion on all three as a complete package, although I will probably draw on certain areas of single books.
MAIN CHARACTERS OF THE BOOKS:
The Hobbits:
(Hobbits are little people who eat a lot, they are generally not adventurous at all, although Bilbo Baggins is quite famous for the tales of his adventures in the Hobbit).
Bilbo Baggins
Frodo Baggins (The true Hero and central character of the books)
Sam (The faithfull partner of Frodo)
Merodith
Pippin
The Wizards:
(Wizards are quite easy to understand, so will not highlight much on this).
Gandulf
Saruman the White
Sauron
The Elfs:
Arwen
Legolas
The Dwarf:
(Dwarfs have always been my favourites, and I love Gimli in these books, love it when he counts his kills against Legolas to see who kills the most).
Gimli
The Humans
Boromir
Faramir
Aragorn (The King to be)
Others:
Gollum (originally from The Hobbit, a strange character).
I have missed out many key characters I know, but these are the one who really stand out for me. I have not focused on any of the evil characters as I just do not feel drawn to them as much, but will be talking about them a little more later.
The Fellowship of the Ring:
This is the first book of the Lord of the Rings and brings back Bilbo Baggins from The HOBBIT although he is not the main character in this book. The main character is Frodo Baggins, his nephew.
This is the beginning of the Lord of the Rings. It follows the revelation that the Ring (which Bilbo Baggins uses to make himself invisible in THE HOBBIT) is in fact THE RING - this is the ring which rules them all, which was chopped off the Hand of Sauron in the original wars long ago.
Now what is the significance of the ring:
In the olden days, before Sauron turned really evil, he persuaded the Races of Middle Earth to make rings, 3 for the Elves, 9 for the Kingdom of Men and I think it was 7 Rings for the Dwarfs. Unknown to them, Sauron created one ring to rule over them. There followed after that the wars of Middle Earth (before The Lord of Rings) and the one Ring was cut off Saurons finger and was lost for all time. This is the Ring that Bilbo finds in The Hobbit and brings us to the current time.
Sauron is beginning to grow in strength again, and the potential for war is beginning to break. Gandulf (the wise wizard) knows that if Sauron gets hold of the Ring, his power will grow too strong. Therefore they have to destroy the ring, but it can only be destroyed in the fire that created it, in Mordor.
Thus the Fellowship of the Ring is created, with Frodo Baggins being the Ring Bearer and tasked to destroy the ring.
This book begins therefore the tale of the creation and the setting out of the Fellowship of the Ring and follows the story through to the parting of the company of Frodo and Sam from the rest of the Fellowship.
The Two Towers:
Now the two towers really follows two stories: Frodo and his companion Sam as they continue to Mordor to destroy the ring and the remaining characters of the Fellowship who launch an assault on Isenguard.
What is Isenguard I hear you say? Well Isenguard is the Home of Saruman the White (a collegue of Gandulf) who has fallen under the spell of Sauron and begun to turn evil.
In order to ensure that the Forces of Good are not fighting a battle on two fronts - once against Saruman and against Sauron, they decide to attack Saruman and take out that one side.
The story of Frodo continues as he makes his way to Mordor and meets up with Gollum (from the Hobbit who used to have the ring before Bilbo found it). He guides Frodo and Sam as he wants to get his hands on his precious (as he calls the ring).
In the Two Towers you also come across Shelob (A Giant Spider) who tries to catch and kill Frodo and Sam. J R R Tolkien (according to the Tolkien Soceity website) had one very vivid memory from his time in Africa - namely a scary encounter with a large hairy spider. One does have to assume that this was probably his inspiration for Shelob.
Watch out for the part of the Ents in this book - a lovely characterisation of the Tree People. I have always enjoyed the descriptions of the Ents as they are just lovely and imagine them as tall and gracefull - slow moving and slow thinking but very effective when a decision has been made.
The story really just continues into the third book after the fall of Saruman at Isenguard.
The Return of the King
Now to what is probably my favourite of the three books. This follows again really two different stories, the continual story of Froda and Sam on his walk to Mordor with Gollom as his guide.
Now the former Fellowship of the Ring (Aragorn, Meredith, Pippin, Gimli and Legolas aid the great cities of Man - Rohan & Gondor in a great battle in the Pelennor Fields, at Minas Tirith and then at the Black Gates of Mordor as Sauron wages his last war against Middle-Earth. The story follows the war of Gondor and Rohan and Aragorn who has to follow his journey of being the King and raise the Army of the Dead to help fight against the followers of Mordor.
Personally I love this third book as you have most of the great battles of Rohan and Gondor and these battles are really well done.
This book really brings everything to a climax, the war of Aragorn and the rest of the Fellowship against the evil of Mordor - against his hordes of Orcs, against the Ring Wraiths and all the other evil creatures of Mordor. It also finishes the story of Frodo and Sam's journey to the fire of Mordor to destroy the ring.
There is also a continuation after the story of Mordor where you get the return of the Hobbits to their home, to find it has been taken over by ruffians. Meredith, Pippen and Sam take back control.
The story finishes with Bilbo and the Elves leaving Middle Earth as their time has come to an end.
My Opinion:
To start with I must state that I love these books. Personally I think that these are some of the most entertaining, enjoyable, fun, thrilling, cannot put them down books that I have ever read. I should mention that I am not usually a fan of Fantasy Novels, however my sister introduced me to these books and I have never regretted this.
As I have said above, THE HOBBIT is actually the first of the story although it is a childrens book. I read THE HOBBIT first when I was about 10 or 11 and loved it then. I probably did not read The Lord of the Rings until I was about 15 or so, but have read it many times since (and probably enjoyed it every time as much as before).
I would recommend that you should read THE HOBBIT first as this is really the prequel to the Lord of the Rings. You do not need to have read it, but it helps to explain and understand details like:
Where does the Ring come from?
Who is Bilbo Baggins?
What are Hobbits?
All in all, The Hobbit is also a much shorter book, therefore if you hate that book it is much shorter to finish (that is assuming you have to finish a book like me).
Now why do I love The Lord of the Rings so much:
Firstly this is just a great fantasy story, it includes so many details including Hobbits, Wizards, Orcs & Ents (They are the tree people). It involves magic, good vs evil and just about everything you could ask for in a book. Best of all for me, these books really allow me to stretch my imagination (although if you have seen the recent films, you have been spoilt of this, as you will probably only imagine what the characters in the film are like), I love the thought of imagining what the Hobbits were like, how the Elven Kingdom looked like, etc. Therefore, if you do not like Fantasy stories at all, then you might want to think twice about reading these books - although personally I would still recommend them as they are CLASSICS.
I really like the way that the stories build up in the three books, it is important for you to realise that each book is not a seperate story, and indeed you will not get an ending to the story until you have read all three books (I have a friend who went to see the first film and was most disappointed when it had no ending as he did not know you needed to see all three - HA HA!, he enjoyed all three in the end). This is an important point, should you not be able to cope with three large books.
So what to say about the Characters, firstly they are really built up well and you feel a real closeness to them. I am just going to highlight some of my favourites as otherwise I will just keep going on and on.
In the first book as the Fellowship of the Ring is set up, you begin to get a clear idea of how they interact together. You get the friendlyish (is that even a word?) rivalry between Gimli - the Dwarf and Legolas - The Elf (Dwarves and Elfs don't get on since the battles between their races you see) which builds up into a true friendship over the three books.
You have the desires of Man to rule, with Boromir being good at heart and wanting to do the right thing, but being corrupted by the thought as to what the ring could bring for power to help the powers of Man (Not knowing that he would not be able to control the power but would just fall under the power of Sauron himself).
You have the collapse of the Elven (that is the Elf's) Kingdom as they are willing to sacrifice all they have to defeat Sauron (always very sad as their time comes to an end, and the time of Man starts up - very well portrayed in my opinon).
You have the beauty of the Elves and the thought as to how that Kingdom was set up and looked like.
And of course you have the Hobbits, true and faithfull to the end. You have Frodo - the ring bearer, who I must admit I have never felt close to - not enough of a warrier for me, but then that is not his primary concern. You have Sam - the faithfull servant (if you have seen the films, then I think Sam is the best protrayed of all of the characters and is exactly like I imaginged him). Sam is truly the best friend you could ever wish, and a truly likeable character.
Last but not least you have Aragorn (also called Strider at the beginning) and he is the true King. Part of the Rangers who guard the outer realms and is the one who will rule. He truly has everything you could wish for in a Hero, strong, brave, intelligent but willing to take orders. Always had a soft spot for Aragorn myself.
Well that is enough about the main characters, you also have excellent characters like Gandulf, the King of Rohan, the Ents (these are the tree people) and many others all of which really stretch your imagination to want to see them.
The stories really are great, you have a bit of everything, you have Land Battles which are described excellently. You have battles between wizards, you have competition on kills between Gimli and Legolas, you have the evil presence of the Ring Wraiths - the nine black riders and they are really well done and you sense the evil in them as you read and of course you have Sauron - the great Evil Boss with the all seeing eye.
I really cannot say how much I recommend these books, Yes it will take you time to read them, and yes they are long books, but they are extremely good.
Only slightly negative point that I can say, is that the second book does go slightly slow for a little while. Does not distract from the overall books but is slower than the rest of the story. Worth mentioning as it is for me a little irritating, especially when you know the story so well.
I am trying to think of something else about these books that I should mention that might be a negative point, and am really struggling as there just isn't anything. I suppose the only thing to say (and this is not really about Lord of the Rings) is that I wish he had written more books - especially about the earlier battles between Sauron and the Good Guys for Middle Earth. That would really have been great.
Verdict: 5 out of 5
Summary: These are excellent books, which you should definetely buy and read once again.
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