Timeless classic! (The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien)

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
Date:	01/01/01 (202 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good story, long

Disadvantages: Put off casual readers, long

If you've never read or heard of the Lord of the Rings (LOTR) before, I suggest you read The Hobbit first - it's another good tale which gives a lot of background into characters and story of the Lord of the Rings, and while you don't need to read it, the knowledge you gain from it will add to your enjoyment of the story, as well as being a cracking read in it's own right.

Written over a period of about 12 years (between 1937 and 1949) and without giving away too many plot details (hopefully), Lord of the Rings is, essentially, a good versus evil story dealing with Hobbits primarily, but involving the other usual suspects of the fantasy genre (Dwarves, humans, elves, wizards etc.) along with magical items, tales of lore etc.

Tolkien started writing it shortly after “The Hobbit” was finished, but before its’ publication and then, for his own satisfaction, stopped and went off to write the history of his fantasy world (Middle Earth). Due to the lack of enthusiasm from those he went to for advice and feedback, he returned to writing the sequel, partly due to the success of The Hobbit, and feedback from interested readers of that story. While the book is meant to be about Hobbits, Tolkien did find that the story that was taking shape relied heavily upon the history of Middle earth that he had been so interested in writing himself earlier.

Many people, when it was first released, likened it to the epic struggle of the Second World War, which Tolkien himself denied vigorously. Although he does point out (in the foreword of the book) that although the two things happened at the same time, he goes to great lengths to describe how the story would be different if LOTR had indeed followed roughly the events of WW2.

It's a very long book – approximately 1200 pages (including family trees, histories, background information and a helpful index), and if you've got a short attention span, maybe yo
u'd be better giving it some serious thought before attempting to read it.

The basic outline of the story is thus:
(If you do not wish to know anything, please skip to the next paragraph now!)
Bilbo Baggins owns a magic ring (see The Hobbit for details) which makes him invisible when he puts it on. It comes to the attention of his good friend Gandalf the wizard that there might be more to this ring than meets the eye. However, Bilbo is growing old, and before he leaves his home to go travelling, he passes the ring to his adopted heir, Frodo. Eventually, Gandalf tells Frodo that he must leave his home, and to Rivendell because he is in danger. Frodo, putting off his departure until he can talk to Gandalf, eventually leave when Gandalf does not show up. Upon arriving at Rivendell, after travelling with three other hobbits (Sam, Pippin and Merry) and the mysterious Strider (who they met along the way), and trying to stay away from the unknown Black Riders, they meet up again with Gandalf. A large council is held where the true identity of the Ring is made known, and a course of action is decided in order to thwart the Enemy (named Sauron, but not much more is known of him). A party of nine is chosen for this task for two reasons – one, to keep numbers small, and therefore inconspicuous, and two, as there are nine Black Riders (the most powerful of Saurons' troops) an equal sized force should hopefully cope better. The party includes Frodo, his three hobbit companions, Strider, Legolas an Elf, Gimli, a dwarf, Boromir, a man who arrived in Rivendell looking for advice, and lastly, Gandalf himself. When the party sets out, then the real story begins…

The storytelling is very good - it keeps your attention as it flits from one piece of action to the other without any confusion on the part of the reader, and I felt sad when I finished the book because I enjoyed reading it that much. Tolkien has created a complete world, and hi
story, in which his stories are set, and as such you feel that the people and places he describes are real, he even includes maps and family trees of some characters!

I'm the sort of person who can re-read books, and watch films many times, and I have owned 3 different copies of Lord of the Rings over the course of about 20 years - I wore out the other two through re-reading.

Lord of the Rings is a timeless piece of classic storytelling. With a film version in the making in New Zealand, anyone who's interested should get a copy of this, and read it before the film comes out because no matter how good the films will be - they'll have to leave a lot of stuff out.

If you like reading, and are a fan of the fantasy genre (and I suppose even if you are not, but have heard people talk about this book) then I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

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