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Summary: this book is awesome
Review: This is the absolute worst book ever written. I still can't believe they killed off Frodo, the supposed star of the trilogy, within 175 pages. That's just ridiculous. Also, what's the deal with the zombies??? I re-read that section 3 times and I still didn't get it. Did they eat Gandalf or not? I still don't know. If you're looking for a confusing book filled with wordy descriptions of fish and the walking dead, you're in luck. Otherwise, you'd better find a new book. A great boook.
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Summary: Only if you are committed to reading all three parts
Review: Because "Fellowship of the Ring" is only the beginning third of the Lord Of the Rings novel, readers should know that it will not follow a typical plot line. Instead, the reader will find an extraordinary amount of time dedicated to introducing us to the fictional world of Middle-earth. For the fan of fantasy books, the read will be an engulfing experience, but for the person just venturing into this literary area and who are use to more straightforward prose that moves the plot forward, it may be challenging.Many may find that they are unsure if they can continue on with the following two parts, "The Two Towers" and "Return of the King". Let me reassure you that as the novel progresses you will not be disappointed. At the end of Fellowship and into the Two Towers, the book will literally hit its stride as the adventure of Frodo, Strider, and the rest of Fellowship unfolds. The entire story of The Lord of the Rings is truly a classic and one that will be enjoyed by anyone who takes the time to immerse themselves in this glorious tale.
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Summary: The Diary of Anne Frank Syndrome(DAFS)
Review: What's that you ask?
DAFS is a condition first expressed by my Social Studies, Reading, and Histrory teacher in 7th grade. She was talking about the Diary of Anne Frank, saying she had tried to read it many times, but could never get into it. She says now that it is so renowned that people are afraid to say it's bad. I beleive the Fellowship of the Ring (FotR) suffer from DAFS.
Sadly, I'm only 13, and haven't read many books from Tolkien time period (plus I think it's stupid to say "That's kinda the writing style back then." If's it's a "classic," shouldn't it be "timeless?"
First of all, the novel is flat out boring.
This emantes primarily from Tolkein's writing style. It's nice to know what the terrain and enviroment the traveling in, sure. BUT Tolkein almost seems to develop the terrain and enviroment RATHER than Frodo and companey. It's as if he's more interested in these than his own characters!
Perhaps becuase of this, his characters seem abhorrably cardboard. Especially Sam, he's almost a robot modeled like a broken record ("I must serve my master...I must serve--)
There is no development in the characters, excluding Legolas's and Gimli's budding friendship (consisting of maybe three lines of dialouge per chapter.)
Even now I question why sole reason for reading it: The movie was coming out and I wanted to be able to compare and contrast. Don't spend your time. P.S. A BIG thank you to the filmmakers behind the movie. The manage to turn out a great film from a tereible book.
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Summary: The Fellowship of the Ring
Review: This is one of the best books I have read, and I have read many books. "The Fellowship Of The Ring" begins when Bilbo Baggins, the Hobbit from the book "The Hobbit", has his 111th birthday party. At his birthday party he left the Shire and left every thing he owned to his heir Frodo Baggins; he even left the magic ring. Gandolf the wizard finds out that the ring is the evil ring-of-power that was made by the Dark Lord Sauron. Years later after Gandolf found out about Frodo's ring, Frodo leaves the Shire with three other Hobbit companions. They are pursued by the fearsome Ringwraiths and finally make it to the Elven Lord, Elronds House. Along the way Frodo and his companions find many new friends and meet many evil dangers including a confrontation with the Ringwraiths. At Elronds house, they join a group of companions whose mission is to destoy the ring at Mordor Sauron's fortress. On their journey to destroy the ring they meet many evil dangers including one Gandolf the Grey can't beat.
I recommend this book to people who like action and drama. This is an excellent book so even if you don't like action or drama you should still read it -- it could be the best book you will ever read.
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Summary: It Is Good
Review: I liked Bombadil, that the ring had no power over him. (See The Neverending Story) That song has power. That every living thing seems to have a song. (See Fraggles) I liked wisdom and knowledge passed by word of mouth via song and poetry. I liked Sam who could poem and was wiser than he let on yet simple. I liked the river. (See Siddhartha) Round doors. The Hobbits' ability to not be seen. Flets. The Elves ability to walk lightly. A lasting winter. A land outside of time. The moon. The idea that there are creatures around one might not know about. Gollum's eyes and his proficiency in the water. Moria, interesting because I'm a chump for a maze; darkness, water wells and ... then ... drums. What bothers me is a missing wizard, having to clamber back down their path to get home and the idea that it just takes too damn long to get there because people grow and change at home and you're missing it. There ought to be a better way.
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Summary: GREAT BOOK!!
Review: This is the best book i've ever read. tolkien is a brilliant author with a very vivid imagination. It is completely dif. from the hobbit. I would recomend the trilogy to anyone. even a non-fantasy lover. It is a wonderful story of friendship and bravery. If you haven't read it, read it now.
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Summary: Finally . . . A Book For Fantasy Lovers!!!
Review: As most of you know, this book has been remade over and over again. Nothing changes in the book, at least hopefully. Most of the time artists try to make a living by remaking and selling the book. They change the cover of the book. I mean come on, the people at the copyright industries need to stop this, or else it will just keep on happening. WHATCH OUT J.K. Rowling, your Harry Potter series might be next. You should get a lot of your own books and keep them and sell them later. You need to do this because in years, artists will start taking advantage of this and give your prized books a new cover. One that you wern't there to see. If you hold on to some books they will be worth a great deal of money for the original book. The very first book with the same cover and same illistrater. You need to grasp what is yours and hold on to it. Well anyways, I need to tell you what this great novel is about.
It startes off when a Hobbit ( almost like little migits ) find a ring. Acually it is one Hobbit. His name it Bilbo Baggins. He finds a ring of great power. When Bilbo puts on the ring it makes him invisible. But with great power comes great responsibility. Poor Bilbo i so cought up in the fun that he does not realize that a great evil is amoung this ring. See a great ruler of darkness and evil forged many great rings of great power. In these rings were the power to guide and rule each race. Three rings were given to Elves. Seven were given to the Dwarves. And nine rings were given to the race of men. All of the ring bearers were fooled by their greed and were blinded by the power of the great rings. For there was another ring made that they did not know of. In the land of The great ruler Sauron there was a mountain. It was Mount Doom and in the fires of Mount Doom he forged the 'one ring to rule them all'. It had the power to corrupt and decive all other great rings of power. One by one the rulers of Middle Earh ( where they live in ) fell to the power of The Ring. There was an alliance of men and elves and on the slopes of Mount Doom they fought. They fought to distroy the One Ring. The alliance almost won when Sauron took matters into his own hands. He distroyed hundreds of Elves and Men. At that moment the king of Men stood up. He fought a use less battle and lost his life for it. His son Isiliadur, heir to the throne of men took his fathers sword. From the blow of Sauron the sword was broken. And with all his might he gave one last slash. Isiliadur had missed . . . wait he hit him. He had sliced of all four of Saurons fingers. Sauron was defeated. Isiliadur took the ring and stood at the heart of Mount Doom. He had but one chance to cast it from which it came from, but he refused. Insted he decided it to be a token to the heir of the ruler of men. On the trip home, Isiliadur was bumbarded by a band of orcs and killed him. They then tossed him in a great river, the Anduin. Although they threw him in the Anduin, they were not aware of his great burden. For over two thousand years is sat and waited at the bottem of the great river of Anduin. Until the Ring was found. It has been found by a Hobbit. No, not Bilbo Baggins but some one else. His name was Gollum. He Brought it in a great range of mountains east of were the Hobbits lived,the Misty Mountains. The Ring gave Gollum a very unusually long life. In the deep caves of the Misty Mountain he sat there ever thinking about it. Until Bilbo Baggins came and found the One Ring and kept it, not knowing what is did or does. He then passed it on to his nefew, Frodo Baggins. He then had to find a way to vancwish this evil that poisened Middle Earth. Will he suceed, or not?
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Summary: An enjoyable if brief suspension of disbelief.
Review: I have a friend who for years tried to get me to read the Tolkien books. She fell in love with them in the 70s when they were very popular and wanted to share them with everyone. I'm not really into narrative prose--although I occasionally read a murder mystery of the classic "who-done-it" type--so I have never read the books, Fern's efforts not withstanding. When the recent Peter Jackson film Lord of the Rings came out, I was very taken with the trailers for it and decided to see what all of the hullabaloo was about. Needless to say, like many people, I was totally taken with the color, the scenery, the characters and the adventure of the movie. I decided to read some of the books before the advent of the next film, The Two Towers, so that I could be better prepared to enjoy and appreciate it. My first venture into Tolkien's style was The Hobbit or There and Back Again, which I managed to read in a matter of a few hours. Because the film had initially sparked my interest, I read part one of the Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, from which the action of the movie was taken. This book is considerably more complex in style than The Hobbit, and probably represents a more mature writer. (In checking the copywrite dates, I discovered that The Hobbit was, in fact, written in the 1930s, while the Fellowship appears to have been copywrited in the 1950s shortly before the author had retired from his academic career.) It's narration is much more convoluted, with great attention given to environmental detail and more space devoted to poetry, some of it exquisite--and I don't normally like poetry--than in the earlier work, perhaps reflecting the author's intention to appeal to a more adult audience. While The Hobbit is a fairy tale, the Lord of the Rings is a more sophisticated fantasy. The bard like style, the poetical interludes, the almost Celtic character of the story, and the author-created languages reflect Tolkien's background as a linguist, philologist, and translator of Anglo-Saxon poetry. It is almost as if he is writing a history of the parallel world of elves, halflings, and dwarves that mankind believed existed around them during the early middle ages, a delightful and frightful world of magic and mystery that modern man misses for all his scientific and technological advances! An enjoyable if brief suspension of disbelief.
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Summary: Sumptuous
Review: I am a great fan of Peter Jackson's movie interpretation of the "Fellowship of the Ring" and it was the movie that inspired me to read the book. So, confession number one out of the way, I saw the movie before reading the book. Confession number two. I read "The Hobbit" by Tolkien earlier in the year, but I never finished it. Somehow, the book and writer failed to maintain my interest, but I am sure I will return shortly and complete that journey. There are so many different takes and perspectives on this book I thought it beneficial to this review to convey my background to reading this novel. Okay, onto the book itself. One of the traits of Tolkien I have had to battle with, is his flowery writing, in particular his tendency to burst into song (or at least his characters do) on a very regular basis. While obviously somewhat relevant to the development of the story and a key part of Hobbit culture, I found the plethora of poetic singing rather tedious at times. Nonetheless, I have read through most verse, except maybe the longest pieces at 2am in the morning. Certainly this style of writing will appeal to some and not others, but be forewarned. It is the mythical worlds that Tolkien has created that really elevate this book to lofty heights, and overshadows any (flowery) flaws the book MAY have in some reader's eyes. What Tolkien has brought to life is a sumptuous and complex mythical world that really has no comparison. The depth and detail to which he has gone into, begs the question, 'had Tolkien an all seeing private window into another dimension?' The many lands, races, languages and creatures are just glorious in all their pageantry and it is all laid out for us in a way which makes us feel that it was always so, and will always be. The unique storyline is complimented by Tolkien's ability to bring to life emotions such as fear, sadness, terror, and joy along with qualities such as loyalty, bravery, perseverance, doggedness and humility. The book is literally dripping with all these ingredients. I personally did not find this book an easy read, it demands attention and a degree of concentration, but the rewards are great. A masterpiece, truly deserving of classic status.
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Summary: Book #1: All that Tolkien is-
Review: And so the world-renowned trilogy begins, with the story of the rings of power. It begins with a hobbit, the smallest creature in Middle Earth and it will end with the same hobbit, Frodo Baggins, nephew of Bilbo Baggins, of whom we read about in The Hobbit. This book is historic piece of literature with characters the develop well over the course of the storyline. How can the smallest creature change history? By resisting all that is evil, and even that may prove to be too much for Frodo of the Shire. J. R. R. Tolkien is a genius with characters and will guide you through this story of peril with the most lovable and disgusting characters that I have ever met in a story of this magnitude. If you haven't read this, you MUST do so to have any literary status Ü !
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