Rating: 
Summary: Good but hard to read
Review: I believe this book is the best seller book of all England (behind The Bible). But I bet half of the people that bought the book did not finish it. It's hard reading all the way, because Tolkien was really eager to develop a credible and whole new world to be like a mithology, so he spent pages and pages describing the ground around the characters.Also, justo one question: WHY THOSE RIDICULOUS SONGS???!! Also, it's alittle bit too hard to like characters that eat so much and sleep so much (hobbits)
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Fiction!
Review: A Great Fiction!
J. R. R. Tolkien enlightens you of what is going to happen in the edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. The book gives good description of what happens to the ring and who the dark lord is. Two books are in one book telling you what happens to the land Mordor and what good forces can break Sauron's forces.
The Two Towers has two dark towers, Isengard and Mordor, going against Middle Earth. The books are the rising action of how the ring survives and what happens to the people of Gondor and Isengard. This thriller is full of action and excitement.
Rating:
Summary: Doesn't live up to its rep.
Review: Lord of the Rings is possibly the most popular book ever written - but I'm not sure why. LOTR is a poorly-structured, poorly-edited, and unrefined piece of fiction that fritters away the fascinating imaginary landscapes and characters with poor storytelling technique and lack of description. If you've seen the movies, you're likely to be disappointed in the hazy, undetailed rendering of the same events in the books. (For example, Tolkien is incapable of describing the battle between Saruman and the Ents - perhaps the most brilliant scene in the movies to date - and so merely references it in a flashback.) LOTR never describes what Orcs, balrogs, trolls, or any other creature look like - all those fascinating movie scenes were created in toto by Peter Jackson and were barely even suggested in Tolkien's text. LOTR is a far-less moving book than the movies; none of the characters displayed the emotional warmth shown by their on-screen counterparts, and each character seems to be interchangeable with any other member of his race. For example, all the humans are stoic Viking types (Aragon, Boromir, Theodon, etc. are all cardboard cutouts of the same character), the elves are all regal, the dwarves are all greedy, etc. It's enough for Tolkien to merely label a character "elf" or "dwarf" and you know the character's personality. (While I don't think Tolkien was a racist, the description of the "goblin men" that Saruman crossed with orcs to produce the Uruk-Hai sounded a lot like Negroes; they were "southrons" with "black skin" and "red tongues.") That said, Tolkien has a way of creating a story that's a perfect ink-blot. All of the symbolism and images in the novel tend to suggest an allegory, but it's anyone's guess what the story really means. Everyone from environmental activists to traditionalist Catholics think that LOTR is a parable about their beliefs, and something about the story naturally lends itself to speculation. Tolkien clearly had a fertile imagination (too bad he lacked the skill with words to adequately describe what he saw in his mind), and the books are among the densest I've ever read. LOTR is not a trilogy, but a 1500-page novel with a laboriously complicated plot. The pot isn't helped by the fact that Tolkien has the compulsive need to name all of his bad guys with names that begin in "S." (Sauron, Saruman, Smeagol, etc.) Worst of all, the book betrays us at the end. When we finally expect to see the dark lord in the open, braced for a shocking revelation of the nature of Evil, the hobbits toss the ring into the volcano and Sauron disappears. In the end, I think LOTR would've been a much better book if Tolkien had collaborated with his drinking buddy, C.S. Lewis (writer of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe). Lewis was a much better writer and probably could've channeled Tolkien's superior imagination toward a higher quality literary work. If LOTR really has subtle Christian or even sectarian Catholic themes, as some contend, then Lewis would've brought them out much better.
Rating:
Summary: Astounding!
Review: if you like harry potter, and you want to take everything about it to a much higher level, purchase this! you will find yourself riveted while frodo continues the journey to destroy the ring of power.
Rating:
Summary: ok if you havent read this
Review: you must be living under a rock or are illiterate. These books are about a fantasy world with elves and men and much worse things. Think its just a kids book? Haha you have a lot to learn. I cried during parts of this book (the tale of Aragorn and Arwen, in the appendix) and the rest of it inspired me to be great. Sure, there arent really times like this for us to live through but if we can capture some of the feeling of this series in our everyday lives then we have more than most people do. It is incredibly sad, and believable, and Im not surprised that some people make this their religion. There are so many great deeds in this book, I only wish real life was like this.
Rating: 
Summary: OVERRATED !!
Review: THis is the most overrated movie of all times, simply as that. TOLKIEN deserves every merit to have the capacity to create a whole new world and whole new languages (even if some of the world he "created" is still suffering comparisons to real life events, like Nazism and rascism...) Also, the sheer size of his work here is something admirable. But it seems to me a lot of people are blind to the big flaws of this book. Basically, altough this sounds absurd, Tolkien should have given his ideas to another writer to write it! Since this was not possible, of course, I think he should have had a better editor. The book has a good plot, but simply no sense of rhythm and pace.It's boring, really boring, mainly when he describes the nature and climate around the characters, OVER AND OVER AGAIN for more than one thousand pages. Also, the dialogues. They all seem totally unnatural, force, raw, even when theya re supposed to be gently and warm.. The characters, another big flaw... At one point, we simply do not care about them, because, other than being presented to the public of a repreentant of some race or king of some place, they simply are left undeveloped! In short, this is the obligatory book to read, even if you're not a fantasy fan like myself. But his "cult" status is something I do not understand.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely the best book of the 20th century and beyond
Review: ...This is not lightweight fantasy, this is worldbuilding on a grand scale. Tolkien's achievement ranges from the epic to the intimate, painting a canvas which draws the reader in and makes us feel deeply for the characters. It is difficult to sum up in a few words what LoTR is about: the struggle between the forces of good and evil certainly, but it's also about loyalty and friendship and honor and difficult choices and sacrifice and hope...woven in a rich tapestry involving the creation of beings and languages that came solely from Tolkien's imagination. You will laugh, you will cry, you will never forget experiencing Middle Earth for the first time. If your first exposure to Tolkien is through Peter Jackson's movies, now treat yourself to the whole story. Middle Earth awaits!
Rating:
Summary: An incomparable masterpiece
Review: I first read this great book 20 years ago and have re read it dozens of times. Each time it brings new wonders and emotions, the endless depth allows each re reading to be fresh and new. It is a wonderful tale, the greatest fiction I have read; and I include in the comparison list, works by Shakespeare, Dickens, Tolstoy, Dante, Homer, Donaldson, Le Guin and many others!) Tolkein is one of the greatest authors of all time, up there with the aforementioned greats.
The modern day fantasy genre owes all to Tolkien, Jordan, Eddings, Brooks and the others are but pale shadows to this masterful original, even though good on on their own. As Tolkien himself stated, if you don't like this work, no reason to feel guilty - the kind of works you probably would admires would be anathema to me, Tolkien and millions of fans.
It has great beauty in action and prose, great horrors, despair, indomitable courage, corruption, nobility, love, romance, pride, terrifying villains and monsters, pitiful characters, admirable characters, courageous heroes, cowardly villains, lands of incredible beauty and horror, epic journeys, stupendous battles, and above all, an overwhelming sense of reality. It takes you from the depths of despair to the pinnacle of joy, but as Tolkien readily admitted (strange as it may seem to many) it is too short.
The novel is a fantasy, but in not escapist in reality, only to those with little comprehension. The themes are timeless and inspiring. The emotions it conveys cover the whole gamut of the human condition in a way that has not been equalled since or previously. Superficially it is an antiquest to desroty a great evil, but the astounding background detail lends a complete reality to the works that no one has ever achieved.
In reality, the book was not Tolkien's main life's work, rather a response to a request for a Hobbit sequel, and to understand Tolkein's masterful creation, you will need to read the other novels, but beware, they are harder to read than average modern reader is willing to put up with. If you can put the effort in, you'll be rewarded, but only if you want to explore the huge background tapestry that underlies the LOR and that lends it such credibility.
The films have been incredible, and do justice to the book, but the books are still superior and I mean no insult to the heroic work of the film director and his crew.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Fantasy-And for good reason!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: Never has there been a universe in fantasy so intricately detailed from languages to races to every aspect of the shire. It reads like a legand or a history, so character development is not the point of the book. The idea to to create the non-existant English mythology. And he has managed. This book will always be a legand. It is wordy, at times slow, and at times the battles can get annoying, but it is definately worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: This Review is for the November 2002 Set ISBN: 0618260587
Review: This is a review of the November 2002 three volume set illustrated by Alan Lee, ISBN: 0618260587, not the underlying books, which are 5 stars. The set is a fine but unimaginative setting for the books. It is the best set I could find, but it is far from ideal. The good points are these: The binding is superior. There is a good, legible map on the inside front and back covers. The paper is good, high gloss stock. The illustrations are good. They mirror the artistic style of the movie, but are true to the text. The not-so-good points are these: There is no color or imagination in the typography or layout of the books. Mr. Lee's illustrations, while good, are not colorful. Most are in a metallic blue palette. (Green, the most Tolkein-esque of colors, is generally absent, as is red). The pictures get more colorful in the third volume, but even then the colors are muted. There are no incidental illustrations or typographical flourishes. The books are oversized, without any particular reason for being so. The type is somewhat faint and can be hard to read, especially when the light hits the glossy pages. My wish list is this: I would like more maps, notes, and annotations. I would like more incidental illustrations and typographical variation. The Lord of the Rings is one of the towering achievements in imaginative fiction ever, and deserves a setting that does justice to the prose, or at least tries to. The recent book The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales has color, wit and wonderment to spare. Tolkein deserves no less. In short, this is a good set and likely the best set available, but I am still waiting for the set I can recommend without reservation. In my opinion, Houghton Mifflin should consider a setting for the Lord of the Rings that is closer in spirit and substance to the type, layout and illustrations of the classic children's books by such artists as Arthur Rakham, Howard Pyle, Newell Wyeth, Jesse Wilcox Smith et al.
|
