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Summary: The Best Book for most ages
Review: I thought this would be just another boring thick book. After reading a few pages down, I got hooked on the story, like being in a totally different world. It just gets so interesting and so real in the adventure that I just wanna keep on reading it. This is a MUST for someone looking for adventurous fantasy. HIghly recommended as compared to the next great stories of Harry Potter.
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Summary: One Ring to rule them all and in the darkness bind them.
Review: All three volumes in one book! Join Frodo on his quest to destroy the One Ring and protect the middle earth from the Dark Lord. Meet orcs, elves, dwarves, hobbits, the tortured Gollum, the wizard Gandalf, face the terrible ringwraiths; discover the lores and songs of ancient folks and lost lands. Become part of the legend! Altogether a wonderful book, with hours and hours of suspenseful pleasure. Tolkien's worlds are so complete and researched you would swear they actually existed. You'll find several appendices with maps, chronologies, family trees, calendars, pronunciation and writing guides... A classic and a gem!
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Summary: The Best Version of the Best Trilogy
Review: Everyone else has said it all before me, except this: This is the ONE THING I remember my parents arguing over in their divorce -- who would get this volume?
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Summary: ok, not as good as i had expected
Review: everyone told me how amazing this book is supposed to be. so i thought hey i'll give it a try. The book often slow at times. the best part in the book is at the very end once everyone goes back home and fix things. the hobbit deserves more praise than this book. i hope they make the movie really well.
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Summary: The Lord Of The Rings...
Review: This book a great book if you like action fantasy books. Also if you like elves and dwarves then this is defenitly a book you should read. It's an action packed book with even some scary parts in it. The story is kind of confusing to follow. Also in some of the parts there are some boring parts where there are lots of diffrent conversations, which are very long and boring. I think this is more of an adult book than a child book because it's kind of confusing. Anyway it's a great book.
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Summary: An epic whose greatness grows with every year.
Review: When author J.R.R. Tolkien released the last installment of the Lord of the Rings in 1955, it was as though he had tilled a seismic line in the sands of fantasy and fiction literature: Before Tolkien and After Tolkien. With his extraordinary depth of characters and storyline, scrutiny of detail, and flowing, serial writing style, the author - in one swift stroke - redefined a genre of modern literature in much the same way that the great bards in Shakespeare's time recast the foundations of drama and the spoken word. The story begins in the fictional land of Middle-Earth, a place not unlike our own in days gone by. Turquoise streams and chill valleys cut across the scenery; intimate villages and great stone cities dot the landscape; and an endless array of interesting characters, both kindly good and plotting evil, wait to be met. The reader first meets Frodo Baggins, the book's protagonist, in a town called Hobbiton - a mythical Pleasantville, USA where the grass is mowed and one's neighbors are just down the road. Frodo is a Hobbit, a kind, soft-footed creature of small stature. He could be any one of us, an Everyday Joe going about their tasks of today. But a mission soon thrust in his hands by Middle-Earth's powers-that-be? To destroy the One Ring, a fulcrum symbol of absolute power, creation and authority... and the one device that may end the world. In short, Lord of the Rings is truly epic: It is chock-full of battles, heroism, romance, comradeship, royalty, long-days, cold nights, plot twists. But Tolkien's ability to capture the imagination of the everyday reader is, perhaps, his greatest accomplishment. The reader feels drained at the conclusion of Frodo's remarkable journey, but filled with new experiences, as if one was actually there riding, walking and fighting with him and his colleagues. Tolkien succeeds in stimulating our emotions and diverting our minds, while clasping our hearts in a way that no other epic has before.
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Summary: One For The Bookshelves!
Review: This is a review of the Alan Lee illustrated, Houghton Mifflin hardcover book (ISBN: 0395595118). This edition of LORD OF THE RINGS is very "deluxe". The dust jacket has the same gold-foil runic borders that THE HOBBIT and THE SILMARILLION editions have (released at the same time). The Alan Lee illustrations are first-rate and abundant throughout the book. There is a nice red bookmark sewed into the book's spine. The Tolkien maps are included, but (like many of the paperback versions) are simply printed on pages - not glued to the back cover as a fold-out. I am happy with my copy. LORD OF THE RINGS, of course, is one of my favorite books. One has to take care when reading it -- all three volumes in one book create quite a weight in one's lap! For the first-time reader of RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP (vol. 1) mixes adventure and high fantasy (ex: Tom Bombadil and the Barrow Wights) to good effect and really hooks the reader in. THE TWO TOWERS (vol. 2) takes its time. The characters are split and Tolkien spends exclusive time with each faction. Don't expect film-like cutting between the main storylines. Tolkien, instead, spends several chapters concentrating solely on Sam and Frodo leaving the reader to wonder what's been happening to Merry or Pippin in the meantime. RETURN OF THE KING (vol. 3) becomes quite beautiful and poetic and is a great reward if you can make it that far! The characters by this time have become quite dear. Enjoy this edition -- definitely one for the bookshelves!
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Summary: Good Versus Evil in a Monumental Fairy Tale for Adults
Review: This is a review of the Soundelux edition of the 1979 NPR broadcasts of "The Lord of the Rings" (LOTR). Hobbits are funny little fat people with hair on their feet. They don't have much magic about them, and they aren't nearly as formidable as Dwarves. They do, however, possess extraordinary grit and endurance. These qualities stand Frodo Baggins in good stead as he sets off to dispose of a magic ring left to him by his Uncle Bilbo. Disposing of such a trinket may seem a small matter, but the very fate of Middle Earth depends upon the outcome of Frodo's errand. Along the way, Frodo acquires a motley crew of helpers: Legolas, a woodland Elf who is a dead shot with a bow; Gimli, a brawny Dwarf whose axe can cleave Goblins with the best of them; Pippin, Merry, and Samwise, fellow Hobbits who are great friends and admirers of Frodo; Aragorn, son of Arathorn, a mysterious woodsman; Boromir of Gondor, the very incarnation of the knight errant; and Gandalf the Grey, a wizard who knows better than any other member of the company the importance of their mission. The company travels through strange lands, confronts awful perils, makes exotic friends, and all the while battles the evil influence of Sauron, the Dark Lord. Eventually they become separated and undertake individual quests. They perform mighty deeds, endure privation, suffer grievous wounds, and some of them even die, but finally the survivors reunite at a battle before the very gates of the Evil Empire. The battle is not an Armageddon, with a fore-ordained winner. It is a Ragnarok whose outcome cannot be known. Writers have often imitated, but never equaled, Tolkien's adult fairy tale. Although I'm not 100% sure, I believe the Soundelux production differs from the BBC production of LOTR. The production values and acting quality suffer by comparison with the BBC production of "The Hobbit." To say that production values are only adequate is no condemnation. A great story can survive even a poor telling, and this production of LOTR is NOT a poor telling of the story. One strong recommendation for the Soundelux edition: the producers edited out almost all the songs and poems which add such tedium to the print version of LOTR.
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Summary: A Classy Edition of a Classic Epic
Review: "The Lord of the Rings" was one of the earliest fantasy epics, and none have surpassed it. J.R.R. Tolkien created a complex, unreal but realistic world inhabited by many creatures -- good, evil, and in-between. The story itself is simple: Frodo Baggins (a hobbit) inherits a ring, which turns out to be the key to the power of The Enemy, Sauron, who wants to rule the world. The ring gives its wearer long life, invisibility, and the potential to command others, but it is basically evil and corrupts the wearer. Therefore, Frodo must journey into the heart of Sauron's territory to throw it into the volcano, Mt. Doom, as that is the only way to truly destroy it. Frodo is accompanied by a group of (mostly) faithful companions. The ending is predictable, but "God is in the details" and the journey is fraught with danger, plots, treachery, unpleasant surprises, a few pleasant surprises, and many strange beings. J.R.R. Tolkien took pieces of many myths and legends, along with pieces of English folklore, put it in a blender, and produced a masterpiece of imagination and literature. The story is good for any avid reader from age 10 to 150. Enjoy!
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Summary: impossible to put down
Review: J.R.R. Tolkien creates an entire universe with his book, almost so immense no amount of books can ever truly cover it. He pays so much attention to detail that you feel you are walking right along with the travelers.
The first book is the slowest of the three, but not any less captivating, it allows you to get acquainted with the characters and builds a connection with them that you feel in the other two.
This is not your typical mid-evil-type adventure book. Tolkien doesn't try to capture you by bashing you over the head with constants battles and gory bloody fight scenes. In fact for how long the story was, I expected more fight but was not disappointed in how many there were.
In just under 1500 pages, the edition I bought, he takes you through one of the most magical stories ever told.
The language, characters speak in old English, can get a bit thick at times and you might get lost in some places unless you are very familiar with it, but none the less you would be captivated by his words if it were written in Chinese!
When you are finally done with the third book, you want to turn around and read the whole thing again for fear of having missed something.
Magical is the only way you can truly describe this book.
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