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Summary: At Last.
Review: The magnificence of Rob Inglis' dramatization, both with respect to its place in the Tolkien Legend and in comparision to the present state of the spoken theatre, is quite simply ineffible. Here presented is THE ONLY completely unabriged reading of the Lord of the Rings to be found, and to commuters like me, it represents a long awaited opportunity to become aquianted with the work of a genius without fear of losing precious shards of his masterpiece to the whim of an editor. Worth every moment of the 20 hour listening time, from the endearing character voices to the hearty singing of songs and chanting of poetry that is sure to linger in your mind throughout the day. A purely wonderful experience for both Tolkien Veterans and the uninitiated alike.
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Summary: The Two Towers is one of the Best Fantasy Novels Ever
Review: JRR Tolkien beautifully interweaves the plot in The Two Towers, told from a third person point of view. His bright adjectives are amazing in his descriptions of cities, forests, and characters. In this story, the second part of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Tolkien narrates the story of Frodo the Ringbearer and the rest of the Fellowship of the Ring. When Frodo and his servant Sam leave the Fellowship for Mordor, ill things come to the rest of the group. An Orc ambush leaves Boromir dead and the two hobbits Merry and Pippin captives. Ever since the fall of Gandalf, Aragorn the Ranger led the group. Now he leads Legolas the spirited Elf and Gimli the surly Dwarf on the chase of the Orcs. When the Orcs were near their destination of Orthanc, the stronghold of Saruman the traitor, the trio of warriors and the Riders of Rohan that they met with, finally catch up to the Orcs. The five score Riders overcome the vicious army of Orcs in a battle at the break of dawn near the mysterious forest of Fangorn. The hobbits, confused, retreat to Fangorn. After a vicious, bloody battle between the Rohirrim and the thousands of Orcs, Isengard is defeated. But Gandalf had returned, and spurred the King of Rohan to attack Orthanc. Gandalf had broken Saruman's staff and banished him finally after the slow, but vicious Ents had destroyed and flooded Isengard, defeating the traitor ultimately. When all of that is going on, Frodo and Sam journey over a wasteland of hills and rock. The evil character Gollum has caught up to them, and they knew they were being followed. With an ingenious plan Frodo captures Gollum and almost trains him to guide them to Mordor. As he writes, JRR Tolkien intricately describes the places that the hobbits pass through, the setting almost telling the future of the story. As the hobbits journey with Gollum as their guide, they meet Faramir and the soldiers of Gondor, and end up befriending the proud warriors. Later Gollum leads them to Mordor, and to an unknown resolve to the story... One of the best parts of the book to my opinion was when Tolkien told of the soldiers of Gondor as though he personally knew them. He closely detailed their clothing, weapons, armor and gear as though he was one of them. The second part of my favorite scene is when the soldiers are fighting the evil men under Sauron's control. Tolkien consistently describes everything going on around, from individual men to how the setting affects the battle. "Four tall Men stood there. Two had spears in their hands with broad bright heads. Two had great bows, almost of their own height, and great quivers of long green- feathered arrows. All had swords at their sides, and were clad in green and brown of varied hues, as if the better to walk unseen in the glades of Ithilien. Green gauntlets covered their hands, and their faces were hooded and masked with green, except for their eyes, which were very keen and bright." This book is masterfully crafted by Tolkien's genius, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes adventure or fantasy or both. The beginning was slow, maybe the first 40 pages or so, but it is a wonderful tale. I really loved it and I'm going to also read the final book to find out the ending. I think you should find out what happens too...
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Summary: The Lord of the Rings - "The Two Towers" (Amazing)
Review: The Two Towers follows the lives of the Fellowship, shortly after they broke up. Samwise and Frodo trek on to destroy the ring at Mt. Doom, and the rest, including Aragorn, Legolas and our beloved dwarf friend Gimli search for Merry and Pippin, who had been kidnapped by Orcs. Fierce battles, amazing dialogue and very memorable characters made "The Two Towers" a great read. I won't spoil the ending, but, I'll tell you this: After I completed "The Two Towers", I immediately went out and purchased "Return of the King" to see how it would end.For any fan of fantasy or fan of great writing, this is the book for you. A great sequel to "The Fellowship of the Ring" and an excellent read. Three words: Read it now
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Summary: World-Class
Review: Inevitably, after reading The Fellowship of the Ring, the natural reaction is to reach for The Two Towers. The second part of a classic trilogy, The Two Towers picks up exactly where The Fellowship of the Ring left off. With most of the main characters already established and the main focus of the journey identified, the truly exciting scenes begin to take place. The novel splits up into a pair of books that take the reader through two different adventures based on the now divided characters. The two books take place during the same time line, which I felt was a very interesting way to observe the storylines. Talking about all the amazing qualities of Two Towers might spoil your own experience, but if you are ready to read Two Towers, you are already have an idea of what type of brilliance lies ahead. The imagery laid forth by Tolkien is simply dazzling, he was a master of the written word and this book exemplifies as well as magnifies that fact. Full of excitement and adventure, this continuation of the quest to rid the world from the threat of evil takes the reader right through the heart of one of the most colorful, well known and amazing fantasy adventures of all-time. After being left breathless at the end of this one, the reader will take part in his or her own journey to get their hands on The Return of the King to finish out the trilogy. Simply Spectacular!
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Summary: The Best of the Trilogy
Review: Lord of the Rings is a fantastic piece of literature. While all of the parts are exceptional, part two, The Two Towers, is without a doubt the best of the series. The novel starts off with Aragorn finding a wounded Boromir. Boromir explains that the Uruk-Hai ambushed him and captured Merry and Pippin. This part of the series is split up into two books (Book 3 and Book 4). While Book 4 is fantastic and details the continued adventures of the Ring-Bearer, Book 3 really shines. The chapter about the Battle of Helm's Deep might be the best chapter in any book ever. For those readers rather uninterested in what happens to Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas, Book 4 will be your favorite. An old enemy of Bilbo's is back to guide Frodo and Sam, but instead leads them into a trap. One warning though. As great as this book is, do not read it unless you can soon-after beging The Return of the King. The Two Towers has even more of a cliffhanger ending than Fellowship of the Ring did. I highly recommend this great piece of work.
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Summary: Lord of the Rings the Two Towers
Review: The second book of J.R.R. Tolkien's three piece story. It has a lot of action and suspense. The book has basically two different stories intwined togather. One of the stories is the becoming of a king. The other story is about the small hobbit who has to save the world by destroying the magical ring of power. Aragorn and his fellow friends are trying to tarck down their other friends who were captured by some orcs. The two hobbits that were captured gathered up some tree-like creatures and destroyed one of the two towers it was called Isengard. While the small hobbit named Frodo is led on by an evil being named Gollum who leads Frodo it to a trap near the end. This book is a real page turner. You may never want to put this one down. There is so much developement within each of the characters that you feel like you have known them for a long time. I would reccomend this book to somebody of any age who likes action-packed fanstasy stories.
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Summary: The Two Towers
Review: Great continuation of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
May 11, 2004
The continuation of the Fellowship of the Ring the Lord of the Rings: Two Towers is an excellent sequel. It is the continued story of Frodo Baggins and his journey to destroy the one ring. As Legolas, Aragorn, Gimli, Gandalf the White, and the armies of Rohan are fighting Orcs at Helm's Deep Frodo and Sam encounter Gollum and ask for his aid to the gates of Mordor. J.R.R Tolkien does a great job in the second Lord of the Rings book. For children that have enjoyed the first book The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers will be equally enjoyable. If children wish to find out what happens after the end of The Two Towers, children should read the last book in the series The Return of the King. For children wishing to know how Bilbo got the one ring, they should read The Hobbit a prequel of The Fellowship of the Ring.
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Summary: The Adventure Continues
Review: The adventures continue for the fellowship in book 2, The Two Towers. There seemed to be a lot more action and fighting in this book than the first. Tolkien's writing style makes this book just as magical as the first, however, I did feel that it dragged on in a few spots and just didn't seem to hold my attention quite like the 1st book. However, I would recommend this book to anybody who loves the movies and anybody who loves the 1st book or the Hobbit.
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Summary: The Revenge Of Gandalf
Review: THE TWO TOWERS by J.R.R. Tolkien is a fantastic book. I like that book because it is my favorite movie. It gives me lots of details so I can see the picture in my head while I am reading. When I was reading I could see how beautiful the setting is. The main characters are Frodo, Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. The main part was the war. I like this book because it is very challenging. I think you should read this book because it is very scary and magical. I like this book and you should too! I hope you read this book!
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Summary: The Two Towers
Review: The Two Towers continues at the point where the first book ends; Frodo leaves the fellowship to travel to Mordor with only his faithful friend Sam as his companion. Merry and Pippin have been taking captive by orcs sent by Saruman. Aragorn decides to leave Frodo to his quest and to follow the orcs in hopes of rescuing Merry and Pippin. The Two Towers is divided into two parts; the first part tells the tale of Aragorn, Gimly, Legolas, Merry, and Pippin while the second part of the book talks about the journey of Frodo and Sam. I found the first part of the book really enjoyable; this is where most of the action was and where the story became more interesting. I felt the second part of the book was a little dull, mostly consisting of tedious description. It didn't hold my interest as well as the first part of the book.
During the first part of the book Aragorn's pursuit of the orcs leads him, Gimly, and Legolas to Fangorn forest where Gandalf makes his triumphant return. The four of them travel to the land of Rohan to speak with King Théoden who is currently under the control of Saruman. After Gandalf breaks his Saruman's hold the people of Rohan flee to Helms Deep to prepare a defense against Saruman's army.
Meanwhile, Merry and Pippin's encounter an Ent, kind of walking, talking tree, named Treebeard. Merry and Pippin learn of the Ent's hatred of the orcs and Saruman because of the harm that they were bringing to the forest. The Ent's agreed that Saruman must be stopped and they begin their march on Isengard after Saruman has sent his army to attack Helms Deep.
There were many exciting and interesting events that happened in the first part of the book. I especially enjoyed Aragorn's pursuit of the orcs; it truly demonstrated his skills as a ranger. He was able to deduce several events that took place by simply analyzing various tracks and imprints on the ground. During this pursuit Tolkien also describes Legolas' keen senses. Legolas was able to see across great distances and make out minor details. Tolkien also mentions the great endurance that Gimly and other dwarves possess. Gimly was able to run for long periods of time without resting or getting short on breath.
This was one aspect that I thought Tolkien improved on in his writing. He began to write about some of his characters in greater detail. I've always thought that his characters were interesting and now that I began to learn more about them I've come to like them more. Stories with interesting characters are far more enjoyable than stories that are entirely driven by their plots. When the characters are more interesting I become more concerned with the events surrounding them, making me more interested in the plot.
This was on reason that I didn't find the second part of the book as enjoyable as the first. It didn't have the same level of excitement as the first. Much of it was tedious description of every rock and plant Sam and Frodo passed as they continued on their journey. The main reason that I was interested in the second part of the book was because of Gollum, who I thought was another very interesting character.
Gollum was in possession of the ring for so long that it gave him an unnaturally long life and corrupted his mind. He practically had split personalities. His "better" half was Sméagol, or who he used to be before he found the ring. His more evil and selfish side was Gollum, one who desired to have the ring above all else. Gollum wasn't a villain when compared to Sauron or Saruman, nor was he a hero. He was a poor twisted soul that had been corrupted by the ring's evil power.
Gollum became bound to the ring; it was something that he had to have and he followed Frodo throughout most of his journey just to get it back. When Gollum finally encounters Frodo and Sam they capture Gollum. Like Bilbo, who had encountered him long ago, Frodo couldn't kill Gollum. Instead Frodo spares him. Gollum swears to serve his new master, Frodo, and to guide them to Mordor. Sam is unsuccessful in his attempt to get Frodo to either kill Gollum or leave him behind and shortly after the three continue on their journey.
I found their journey dull for the most part because it didn't really compare to the journey that the others experienced in the first part of the book. It wasn't until towards the end of the book did Frodo and Sam's journey become more interesting. Gollum had led the two hobbits to Shelob's liar in an attempt to reclaim the ring. Shelob is a giant spider creature that had existed on Middle Earth since almost the beginning of time. Once Gollum leads them to the lair he leaves the two hobbits in the dark as pray for Shelob. I thought this was an interesting change of pace because it portrayed Sam as a hero and he displayed the same courage that Aragorn and the others displayed in the battle of Helms Deep.
Overall I felt that the Two Towers was a good story but I thought it would've been better if Tolkien had made Frodo and Sam's subplot alternate with the subplot of Aragorn and the others instead of separating the book into two sections. It was hard for me to change from the great suspense of Aragorn's pursuit, the battle of Helms Deep, and the Ents siege on Isengard, to a much slower pace story. If they hadn't been done separately the story would've been much better in my opinion because there wouldn't be such a large change of pace between the two parts of the book. However, I still felt that this was a great story.
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