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Summary: Tolkien Fan
Review: The way that Tolkien describes the scenes to such great detail without boring the reader is outstanding. Not a lot of writers can do that. Frodo, Bilbo's nephew, is the next great hero of the series. I feel he is deeper than his uncle and has more character. With Frodo you got that he was more adventurous. Maybe that is because he is younger than his uncle was at the time he went on his adventure. Either way, I liked Frodo better than Bilbo. The way that Tolkien draws you into his world is genius. He made it a lot more vast than in the Hobbit and had a bigger and more interesting cast. With Tolkien you don't just read his works, you are absorbed into them. You become an invisible companion to Frodo and his band of misfit characters. A Great book that I recomend is The Price of Immortality. It is a great read that I honestly enjoyed.
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Summary: A Adventure with Plenty of Action!
Review: I first read The Hobbit about 3 years ago and now that I have read J. R. R. Tolkien's The Felloship Of the Rings Series, he has become one of my favorate authers. I like how he gets so detailed in his writing that you feel like you'r right their in the book. I would reccomend to anyone who likes Redwall.
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Summary: ONE OF THE GREATEST BOOKS EVER WRITTEN!!!
Review: I first read The Hobbit in seventh grade when I needed something to start reading for my Great Books class. I am a die-hard fan of fantasy novels so I picked it up and began reading. I have been a big reader since the beginning of fifth grade. I have started collecting books since then. When I read The Hobbit, I knew that I had to buy it. I was aware that there was another book called The Lord of the Rings, which was a book separated into three. This passed Christmas I got this set. I always like saving really good books for summer. So that is what I did. I now have started The Lord of the Rings. It took me maybe 15 days to finish The Fellowship of the Ring. I had seen the movie first with my Advanced Placement class and loved it. I figured that the movie would be along the lines of the book. But I now know it was far from it. I didn't expect to be surprised much by the first book of "Rings." But there was much to be surprised about. The same with the beginning of The Two Towers. I have found myself speaking more like the characters. More or less like Legolas and Gandalf for some reason. Books have that effect on me. I tend to speak more like the characters I read about. Same thing happened when I read Harry Potter and The Silence of the Lambs. The Lord of the Rings is one of my favorite books ever and the same with The Hobbit. One thing I must say is that I enjoy looking for favorite characters and I would say that Legolas is my favorite. The same with Aragorn (aka Strider). I also like Gandalf. I find these characters as well as Gimli quite funny and interesting to read about. There exploits make for enjoyable reading. I would tell everyone in this world to read The Lord of the Rings if I could. This I speak the truth.
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Summary: im afraid this might be the best thing i will ever read.
Review: i had my reservations about this collection of books before i began reading them; i was afraid the "fantasy" category would be a let down. but tolkien's mastery of character development and completely enthralling and epic plot won me over within the first 100 pages. [and considering that's maybe a 12th of the series, that's impressive.] i became completely imersed in this book, and during the week it took me to read it [yes, I'm slow] i began speaking in the elevated diction Tolkien so eloquently uses. this book is such an amazing adventure [the first movie was awesome as well], any one who doesn't get a chance to read it is really missing out. the story lacks a deeper meaning, yes, but based on simply the story telling ability of the author, the Lord of the Rings is an unforgettable classic.
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Summary: The Lord of the Rings Boxed Set
Review: This set includes: The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. The first book, The Hobbit, is a prelude to The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. It sets up a basic understanding of the characters and the Ring. It's my favorite out of all. The Hobbit is about a Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins. He's a quite creature and doesn't like adventures. He leads a very laidback lifestyle. One day, that all changed. A wizard named Gandalf pays Bilbo a visit, and Bilbo invites him to tea the next day. When Gandalf comes, he brings with him 13 dwarfs on a mission to reach The Lonely Mountain to acquire their gold and treasure from the evil dragon Smaug the Magnificent. The rest of the story is filled with adventures! It's so exciting! There were a couple things I didn't like about this book, though. I didn't like how J. R. R. Tolkien could go on for a full paragraph describing things. I also didn't like how there were so many names. All of a sudden, he'd name a name and I'd think, "Who's he/she? He's never mentioned that person before!" But other than that, the book was fine. I would also recommend The Fellowship of the Ring, and The Two Towers. I haven't read The Return of the King or I would give you my opinion on it. I own this boxed set, so I would encourage those who like adventure to buy this set and read these books!
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Summary: THE FILM WAS GREAT, BUT THE BOOK IS VASTLY BETTER
Review: As I wrote in my review of the recent film, I was in my younger days one of those early-1970's LOTR fetishists (and there were enough of us around to outnumber all the fell hordes of Mordor) who who regarded Tolkien's meisterwerk as something of a spiritual map. I've outgrown quite such an un-nuanced belief in Tolkien's grasp on Eternal Truth. In fact the last time I read the book, I was a little (dare I so much as whisper it, even in the well-lit halls of Rivendell?) cringed by the political incorrectness, the imperialistic assumptions, the sheer darn chauvinism of the narrative. Literary fashions move on, and Tolkien is an increasingly dated form of cool. But then the same could be said of Shakespeare. In a generation that is steeped in sword and sorcery imagery, it is so easy to forget that (allowing for his largely unacknowledged debt to Wagner), Tolkien invented the whole genre single-handedly. I'm not saying that LOTR is an easy read. It is long-winded in places. Tolkien had spent years developing the geography and history of his imaginary world, in fact he'd even explored the possibility of getting this work published, before he started work on the stories that make up "The Hobbit" and the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. And he was determined to get some of it in, even at the risk of slowing the pace of the narrative. Even so, the book is rewarding like no other fiction ever written. Tolkien knew enough to link his story to all the mythologies that are part of our cultural make-up, without ever actually plagiarising existing legends. He was a master of literary styles, ever matching his style of prose and poetry to the incident being narrated. His characters burst into vivid life, as do his landscapes. Above all, he makes you want to be there - a point proven by the many thousands of obsessive fans who do take up a kind of residence in his fantasy landscape. Simply life-changing. I first read LOTR as a cynical teenager, wanting to loath its fairy nonsense. But I was drawn in, mesmerised; I lived and breathed it. I finished it in an all night sitting from about 8 in the evening until 7 the next morning, when I reeled out into a flawlessly bright and dewy summer morning still unable to disengage my brain from that distant other world. Thirty years later it still ranks as my favourite novel of all time, and it shows every sign of being the most enduring piece of classical literature to come out of the English-speaking world in the 20th century.
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Summary: LOTR fanatic
Review: These books rock! Be wary, however, they are not for the faint of heart. If you don't like reading quality literature and would rather curl up on the couch with a comic book, DO NOT ATTEMPT THESE BOOKS. You will only end up putting a bad review up here because you can't understand them. (Note: this is different from being completely able to understand the books but just not enjoying them for reasons of your own). These books require a lot of commitment (besides having to trudge through eight generations of hobbit ancestry, you also have to keep track of the Fellowship's travels on the maps provided). It's worth it, however, It's a great story, it's great writing, and the movie is good but not as good as the book. Read these!
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Summary: Great characters, lively envorment, excellent story
Review: This is a superb book. With a fantastically well told story, all the environments and characters are described with luxury of detail. With hundreds of plots that bind incredibly for a great ending, I found this book to be a must read for anyone who call himself a fantasy genre lover.
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Summary: The Most Kick [Rear] Series of All Time!!
Review: To start off, these books kick [rear]! It has action, drama, romance, and a deep, deep storyline. The book is real descriptive of the environment and people and will make you not want to put it down. I've had more than one time, where I've gone to bed right in the middle of an exciting part and found myself laying awake, wondering what's going to happen next. And sometimes they will be describing the adventures of different groups of the Fellowship, and they will switch over to the other group right in the middle of a battle or something and while you are reading what's happening to this group, you ponder what's going to happen to the group you were just reading about. And finally, about The Hobbit, although not a necessary read for reading the other three, i would recommend it, so you have a better knowledge of a lot of events and characters in the series.
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Summary: Check this out Ladies - Not just a guy book
Review: When I was younger I had seen my brother reading these books and automatically catagorized them as boy books, like the Hardy Boys or something, or for only those kids you saw playing Magic or Dungeons and Dragons (for those of you out there who still play those games, I'm not trying to knock you, I'm just saying that the games were never really my thing.) What an idiot, right? Looking back though, I am actually THANKFUL that I didn't read them until I was 23 - I don't think it would have had the impact that it did. Let me put it this way: My best friend told me to try The Hobbit, and if I liked it, to go on to The Lord of the Rings. For the next four months, I was in the zone. The Lord of the Rings was one of the few books in my life that when I was finished with it, I was desperately SAD that it was over -- I almost started rereading it right there just so I could be in that world again. To be sure, the story is quite convoluted and so full of characters and ages and creatures that the first read can be daunting and confusing, but for some reason I was completely hooked. The main story is quite clear: the fate of the world rests in the hands of one of the most "insignificant" creatures of Middle-Earth, a hobbit by the name of Frodo Baggins. Charged with the seemingly insurmountable task of defeating the evil Sauron, we the reader are taken on a journey with Frodo and the group pledged to help him complete his mission. In a way, I fell in love with every character; all brought their own strengths and weaknesses to the story to create a richness little seen in most novels of late. If you are one of those people like myself who is thrown by the idea of reading a sci-fi/fantasy novel, rest easy. We are not in the league of the Star Trek serials, BELIEVE me. One must also praise The Hobbit as well; a prequel and a full rich story unto itself, we are introduced to Bilbo Baggins, Frodo's uncle, who is involved in an escapade 60 years before the beginning of LOTR. It is a comedic-tragic tale that introduces us to Middle Earth and many of its inhabitants; if you are planning on reading The Lord of the Rings, I suggest you get the ball rolling with The Hobbit. Something else I should probably mention is that it was VERY helpful for me to use the maps and the glossaries given to orient myself; it really helped me visualize the world that Tolkien has created.
PLEASE go read these; I want you all to be as happy as I was that I read them. And let us sing praises for Tolkien, shall we? These books were obviously a labor of love for the man. We can only be thankful that he allowed us to share in it.
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