Rating: 
Summary: Better than the movie, better than the book
Review: The majority of work in creating the movie must have been deciding what to discard. They also had to distort much to fit it to their deletions. Reading the book and getting the full experience of it requires complex visualization and spacial organization. Doing this while reading is a tedious task and makes the book a weary tale. Also, without the deliberate effort of performing the various parts, the dialog falls short and it reads as a book meant for children. This masterful performance hits the mark. It couldn't have been told better by ol' Bilbo himself, which is how I think the book was meant to be enjoyed. This has to be the best performance that will ever be. You can even see that some of those in the movie must be guilty of borrowing some of their performance from this one. Get some good pipeweed, and listen to this with a friend!
Rating:
Summary: Good time after time
Review: I've read "LOTR" just about every year since 1964 when my high school English teacher said, "I think you might like this." She was so right. And now, having all three books, unabridged, on CD is so marvelous. Mr. Inglis does a wonderful job bringing the characters to life (you always know when Gimli is talking) and even the greater part of the appendix is included.You cannot know how great it is to fall asleep at night listening to tales from Middle Earth with some of my favorite characters of all time. There are times when I wish he'd read instead of sung some of the tunes, but it never detracts from the beauty of Tolkien's prose or the magnificance of the story. I still cry reading the last parts of RoTK - it's all so very well done.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Fantastic
Review: I have read The Lord of the Rings countless times and have always enjoyed it. I have listened to, and enjoyed, the BBC "radio play" version, but this unabridged reading by Rob Ingles was far superior. To say that Rob Ingles "reads" the book misses the point. He ACTS the book, and he is wonderful. Each character has his own voice, his own mannerisms of speech. The songs are sung and stories are told, not just read. By listening, you are cast into the world of Middle Earth. You are along for each moment of the journey, each excrutiating step of the bearer's quest.
Listening to this story read aloud brings the full richness and complexity of this timeless tale to life. It has been a wonderful experience. I know I will listen to this time and time again.
Plus. . . It's worth the whole price just to hear Gandalf's voice!!
Rating:
Summary: Rob Inglis is a great reader
Review: ...This item is the The Lord of the Rings Trilogy as narrated by Rob Inglis. There are no sound effects. And this is not the BBC recording that was made using a whole cast of people for the different characters. Rob Inglis is able to give each charater their own sound though, and his Gollum voice even gave me the spooks sometimes! This is a high quality recording and a great way to read the book (I have a hard time keeping the characters all straight in the text version of the book, but it's easy when each character had his own "sound"). If you aren't sure about buying it, check out the copy from your local library - this is the exact same recording that they have from the Recorded Book Company, LLC (in the red and white covers)...
Rating:
Summary: Sound effects? What sound effects?
Review: There are no sound effects. Yes, Rob Inglis does alter his voice for different characters. And he even sings the songs. (I do wonder where he got the melodies. "The Road Goes Ever On"? Strange that it isn't in print. . .) But there are no sound effects. Perhaps that review refers to the BBC or other dramatization?
Rating: 
Summary: Lord of the Rings - Unabridged
Review: This was a very difficult book to listen to. The sound effects made it hard to understand anything. I would not recommed this to any one.
Rating:
Summary: The Father of Fantasy
Review: I'd like to make a few corrections concerning other reviews and put my own oar in as well. This book (it was intended as one book by Tolkien) is NOT 3000 pages. Without the appendices, it is barely 1000 (1008 to be exact)and 1137 pages with them. And if this is considered a long book for the faint of heart, then you aren't much of a reader to begin with. It is also not just for children, although it is a great book for kids to dive into. It contains a lot more substance than the Harry Potter series, although they are good in their own right as well. Sometimes this book may seem melodramatic and formulaic, but remember, Tolkien was first, all who followed used HIM, not the other way around. As a fan af the written word, I am hesitant to see my favorite books adapted to screen, and rightly so. Rarely does the screen version of a book hold a candle to the book itself, and for good reason. There are no budgets on people's imagination. There is no cost for the CGI in my head, so the sets always look better than on the big screen. The first movie of this book surprised me, however. It gets as close to the book as monetarily possible. It follows the plot, shows absolutely fabulous locales, and the acting is top-notch (thanks in large part to the McKellan playing Gandalf). Unlike the Harry Potter movie version, Jackson (director) wasn't afraid to take a poetic license with his screen version, and it payed off extrememly well. Potter is true to the book (mostly), bt there is no feeling to the movie, no heart, just special effects with moderate acting (excepting Maggie Smith of course). But I digress... Overall, the book is excellent, the movie very true to the book with heart of its own, and it's NOT 3000 pages long!
Rating:
Summary: The Lord of the Rings Audio [Unabridged]
Review: I've read the book, listened to the tapes by the BBC, and seen the first movie. The movie was good, but it was very different from the book. It's much too serious and Liv Tyler was awful. Anyway, this recording of the book was just what I needed. I'm in high school, and I have a half-hour bus ride to school every day in which I do nothing, and it is too bumpy to read. This was the answer to my woes. I'd wake up in the morning (at 6:30 cause our systen's backwards), and actually wake up to get on the bus. I listen to these CD's all the time, and I think you should too. Well worth whatever amount of money you pay for them.
Rating: 
Summary: The Most Over-rated Trilogy of the Century
Review: After hearing all the hype about the books and the movie, I expected a real classic. However, these books were more like a double dose of NyQuil. I can't believe I wasted 12 hours listening to these. There are far too many characters and the books jump from sub-plot to sub-plot so often that they never established my interest in any one thread. There was no action or suspense. I didn't see the movie but can imagine that it may have been more interesting with the help of the visual effects. This story seems to be perfect for a movie....it needs some kind of help. As it is, it's far from exciting and a "Classic" it's definitely not.
Rating:
Summary: The Lord of The Rings
Review: Read it! If you're anything like me, you'll love it. NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART, 3,000 pages long.
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