The Return of the King

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Summary: Into the west...
Review: The road may go ever onward but, for us at least, the journey is done. It is difficult not to be emotional arriving at the end of Return of the King after making it through the entire trilogy. The thing about this particular book, for me, is it seems much such shorter than the other two. At least half the number of pages are devoted to the Appendices. The Two Towers had brought us so far that all that remains in Return of the King is climax after climax. Here, Frodo and Samwise's journey through Mordor is much more arduous than in the movie. It is in the third installment I think that we get the despair that Tolkien felt coming home from the Great War. He, like Frodo, must have found it impossible to pick up the threads of his old life.

Like the movie, there is a very long denouement after the climax of the story. You may think it is over, but we have to find out what happens to all the characters. Peter Jackson left a lot out of the film - especially what happens to Saruman and the Shire.

Now that it is over, I realize who my favorite characters are by who I will miss. Oddly, I don't miss any of the Men. Aragorn, for all we are told we are supposed to love him, falls rather flat on the page. Yeah, he is heroic, but I can't relate to him. I will miss Gandalf - he was fun. Legolas and Gimli are too thinly drawn to have any true love for them. Ultimately, Lord of the Rings is the hobbits story. They have personality. I feel for Frodo and the task that has been thrust upon him. I feel I know him and Samwise. That is the true statement the books have to make about heroism - you don't have to be a super-human like Aragorn. As Gandalf says, "you just have to do the most with the time that is given."

It's sad to watch your friends sail off into the sunset, but ultimately, that is the only way the book can end.

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Summary: UGHHHHH!
Review: This book is SLOW. The characters aren't real at all, and they each have about 50 names. Take Aragorn for example: Strider Aragorn, Estel, King Ellisar, Plain Ellisar, etc. The names are unoriginal, like Arwen and Eowyn, different by one syllable. The book is rather confusing by itself, then if you read all the appendixes, you don't know who is who. The whole book is simply fighting and killing, with an occasional appearence by Gandalf. Merry and Pippin are the only source of humor, if they ever come up in the book. Did I mention that the characters are totally fake? Their actions are random and unpredictable, even for a fantasy, their speech is ridiculous. The "Greatest Fantasy Epic of our time" is a silly name for a book this long and boring. Totally overrated, this book stinks. What's worse is that it is the best book out of the series. For once the movies are better than the books. Even if they are saturated with special effects.

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Summary: Like the Rankin-Bass Movie Minus the Songs
Review: If you're this far in the Trilogy it's unlikely you're going to give up if the third book gets a poor review. Fortunately, The Return of the King is as good as or better than its companion books.

The book opens (unlike the also excellent Peter Jackson movie) with Pippin and Gandalf riding to Minas Tirith, Aragorn & Co. In Rohan pondering their next move, and Sam trying to rescue Frodo from the orcs of Cirith Ungol - granted, you don't pick up this final thread until over halfway through the main text (a synchronized version of events appears in Appendix B). If your only interest is in seeing the Ring destroyed, skip directly to Chapter 3 of Book VI. If you can stand some "irrelevant information and/or dialogue," go ahead and read Book V and see if Gondor can be saved from Sauron's minions.

Don't stop reading at the end of the main text, though. The Appendices contain a wealth of information including the history, calendars, and languages of Middle-Earth. While not required reading, they really add to one's appreciation of Tolkien's masterpiece.

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Summary: Defeat The Book
Review: I read Lord Of The Rings The Return Of The King. Written by J.R.R Tolkien it is the last in the series. I loved the book it has action that makes you keep on reading non-stop. It probably has more action than the other books.
The book started in Minus Tirith. The war for the ring had started. Minus Tirith called for the aid of Rohan in battle. The battle of Middle-Earth was fought at Minus Tirith. Frodo and Sam are in Mordor for most of the book. They are clad in orc-fashion most of the way to Mount Doom. The weight of the Ring grows in Mordor. They destroy the Ring. Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin head back to the Shire and find that it was ruled by a terrible person. Ruffians were sent to make sure the hobbits were paying up. At one point, a ruffian made Pippin made so he Merry and Sam drew swords and slew him.
I felt that I had to read this book because I saw all three of the movies and read the first two books. You must read the other two books first!!

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Summary: The Return Of The Knig
Review: It was a great book!! Very detailed description of areas and people. The book got me interested in reading again. It had hardcore battles that kept me reading for hours on end. The only problem was that it needed to stay on the subject instead of giving so much information on areas that are not relevant to the story. Other than that it was great book. I recomend this book to everyone that loves Fantisy books.

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Summary: Jackson let us down with the movie.
Review: The book is great (Read it!), but personally feel Peter Jackson made two major mistakes with this movie and let his viewers down. I still think it's a great movie and probably should get the rewards it will get (and you should see it), but it is not The Return of the King that Tolkien wrote and you need to read the book to fully understand why. Here are the reasons:

First, the Scouring of the Shire was completely omitted from the movie. Peter Jackson's claim that this is anticlimactic is far, far from the truth. In fact, it is climatic and that's why Tolkien put it in. There are three basic needs for a man: an adventure to go on, a battle to fight, and a pursuit (of the woman). You see all three of these in movies such as Braveheart. A young man needs to hear from his father that he has strength for the adventure, battle, and pursuit. Without this, a man is serverely wounded. Instead of being a stallion, he becomes a gelding, and one of the key problems of the church today is we have these geldings instead of stallions, and geldings cannot bear fruit.

Frodo has these same needs. In the Scouring (the book), we see Frodo returning to his "Place" (Hobbiton) after it has been destroyed by Saruman. Frodo is in a massive depression. He essentially failed his mission (he didn't put the ring in the volcano) and is burdened by his guilt, failure, and physical infirmitiess. On his return to "Place", however, he takes on his masculinity and leads the hobbits in restoring their community ("Place"). Frodo leaves the story as a true hero. That's climatic, not anticlimactic.

Second, the Houses of Healing incident was completely omitted from the movie. In the book story Eowyn, Faramir, and Merry lie dying in the houses of healing. Ioreth, the lady attending them, says their healing is beyond her power. "The hands of the king are the hands of a healer," she says, " And so shall the rightful king be known." It is Aragorn, the coming king, that enters and leads all three to their healing. Tolkien pulls a little psychologica trick here in the book. After the healing Ioreth repeats the sentence again, acknowledging her perception of Aragorn as the coming king because he can heal. She seems to repeat this line again and again until Aragorn is crowned as king. She tries to repeat the line again, but fails as the trumpet drowns out her voice. By this time, however, the reader is completing the line; that is, the reader is being forced to take ownership on that statement.

Now Tolkien was a devout Christian (Catholic), and was the man that led C.S. Lewis to the Lord. Tolkien is not talking about any earthly king or kingdom here. When I read this in Tolkien's book I wept. I think it's the most important quote in the book, but it's not even in the movie. It is a great movie, but it is not The Return of the King if you can't see why he is king.

My guess is that Peter Jackson probably didn't understand the spiritual significance of either of these parts of Tolkien's novel. That's unfortunate, as both are the highest points of Tolkien's story.

In all fairness, I think Peter did a more than remarkable job with The Two Towers. I see King Theoden, as he first appears, as the majority of the Church today, captured and powerless and not even knowing what is going on. Our heroes heal him and release his bondage, and his people rejoice to have their king again. Aragorn, knowing war has already started and Theoden's son has died in a battle, tries to encourage him to get ready.

Theoden: I will not risk open war.

Aragorn: Open war is upon you, whether you risk it or not.

That is exactly where the Church is today. Christ said he gave his followers authority and power. To do what? That is what the Gospels are all about. There is a war going on, whether we risk it or not.

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Summary: OK, I know this will be an unpopular opinion but.....
Review: To some, Tolkien's greatest stregnth is creating a different world. To me, that is to some extent, his greatest weakness. He seemed to indulge that creativity too much in the third book. I found that the story and character development was greatly hampered by the constant description of locations. I know some love that aspect of the book, but to me, it made it unbearably slow at times. As soon as the action began, Tolkien would launch into detailed descriptions of places and their relation to other places. I could have skipped half this book and not have missed a thing. While I did enjoy the ultimate conclusion and happy ending, as well as the farewell between characters, this book largely could have been subsumed in the maps!

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Summary: A Great Ending To A Great Series
Review: This book is one that will stay with me forever. The series itself is one of the most powerful fantasy stories ever written. The Return of the King is devided into two parts the first is of Merry, Pippin, Gimli the Dwarf, Legolas the Elf, Gandalf the Wizard, Aragorn the Ranger, Théoden the King of Rohan, Eomer, Eowyn, and Faramir. The second is of Frodo Sam and Gollum. While Frodo and Sam are getting closer to mount doom to destroy the one ring of power, every one else is fighting off the armies of mordor. This story tells of the trials of friendship and the evils of war. An enchanting novel for the fantasy reader.

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Summary: Triumphant conclusion, bravo Tolkien!
Review: This book, The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, is the perfect ending to this wonderful Fantasy Fiction series. This book has amazing descriptive writing by J.R.R. Tolkien about the lands of Middle Earth. He describes the vast landscapes of Rohan where the book starts with Gandalf, Aragorn, Pippin, Merry, Legolas and Gimli in service to the king. From how he describes it, the land is gorgeous and mountainous. Like Gondor, the lands are grassy and vast. It reminds me of the mountains of Switzerland or Australian plains. In the beginning, when he describes all the work they're doing for the king, he talks and rambles on a little, but after you get through that, it's all good from there. .. There are many battle scenes here, where the orcs come from Mordor, and Tolkien has good descriptions of it, so it seems like you're almost there, in a land that doesn't exist.
After all the fighting scenes and the battles are over, Tolkien begins to describe Frodo, Sam, and Gollum's quest to destroy the Ring. Of .. .. The ending is stupendous, and it's worth reading the first two just to get to the ending of this book. It's really touching and it may draw a few tears.
Tolkien had the writing style of explaining things that may not be very significant at the time, but he does explain things very well enough so you can fully understand what's going on. For characters, he may go on about their heritage a little too long, but he does explain very well what their certain quest is to do and how they can do it. He may put a little too much talking in there, so much that you could become confused as to what is really going on, but you can get the main concept.
The readers who would enjoy this book the most would be probably teens because the vocabulary is really expanded, but that can never be bad. It is a harder level, but I wouldn't even bother reading it if you haven't read the first two, because you would probably become really confused. I definitely recommend this book; it is a must-read. It's full of action and adventure. It also has a love story between Aragorn and Arwen, along with a story of wits and determination of two young hobbits.
Tolkien is in my opinion the most brilliant writer of his time. The Lord of the Rings are without a doubt the greatest epic novels of all time, with the amazing characters, landscapes, and story plots. This story has no boring parts; it is filled with excitement and drama. The end will make you feel wonderful and just make your day. I hope you enjoy it and love it as much as me, along with millions of others have.

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Summary: The Return of the King
Review: THE RETURN OF THE KING
BY; J.R.R. TOLKIEN
*****
This book jumps into two sections. In the first section the main characters are Merry, and Pippin two Hobbits, Gimli the Dwarf, Legolas the Elf, Gandalf the Wizard, Aragorn the Ranger, Théoden the King of Rohan, Eomer, Eowyn, and Faramir. In the second section it is Frodo, and Sam also Hobbits. The first part of the story with the first characters they are fighting to save the city of Gondor. They fight against man, orcs, and other horrible creatures of the Dark Lord Sauron. In the second half it is about Sam finding his master Frodo deep inside the land of Mordor. Frodo and Sam must make there way past Sauron's army and make it to the fires of Mt. Doom. With each step the burden of the Ring of power on Frodo grows. It feels much heavier. It's taking control of him. Will Frodo make it to Mt. Doom? Will he be able to cast the ring into the fires or will its hold on him be his downfall? There is a third part and the Hobbits that are living return home and find out they have to save that as well.
This story has good strengths. It all played out. I would suggest reading the other books first. There weren't many weaknesses in the story. I couldn't find any. But if you don't like the jumping around then I wouldn't suggest it to you.
I would recommend this book to you if you like the myths of the world along with humans mixed together in the fight to survive.