The Return of the King by JRR Tolkien

Reviewed by Ambrea

The Return of the King is the gripping conclusion to an epic undertaking.  All questions shall be answered and all fates will be decided:  Will Frodo and Sam finally reach the fires of Mount Doom—or will the land of Mordor, or other enemies stop them?  Will the Fellowship survive the relentless malevolence of Sauron?  Will Minas Tirith and the rest of free Middle-earth fall to the Dark Lord—or will the King finally return to his rightful throne?  Finally, all the different threads—Frodo and Sam, Aragorn, Pippin and Merry—will be brought together to finish the story and bring about the end of the Third Age.

JRR Tolkien’s final novel, The Return of the King, has become my favorite from the trilogy.  Although it feels like the shortest novel of the series—I think the pace simply makes it feel so—I think it also has the most adventure packed into it.  Not only will readers have the chance to learn the fate of all their favorite characters, great battles will be fought and blood will be spilled and lives will be lost and history will be changed forever.

It’s quite as dramatic as it sounds.

As always, Tolkien’s writing is magnificent.  He imbues something special into his writing, creating an incredible world of great beauty and deep darkness and fantastical sights.  He is able to convey so much in his writing and, more to the point, craft something that’s completely and totally unique—something that will influence fantasy writers for decades

I loved reading about Gondor, carved from the rocky slopes of the mountain; I loved imaging the wide, grassy plains of Rohan and the sunny beauty of Ithilien; I even enjoyed the imagery of Mordor with its dark, jagged mountains and dusty, gray plains.  I feel like I could taste the dry, gritty wind, smell the smoke belching from Orodruin.  Tolkien is a master of crafting a realistic landscape.

I also enjoyed reuniting with characters I have come to adore.  In particular, I was thrilled with the story of Eowyn.

As I noted in my review of The Two Towers, I love strong female characters—and Eowyn is a perfect example.  She’s a shieldmaiden, born and bred for battle, and yet she’s left behind by Théoden, her king, and Eomer, her brother, and even Aragorn.  Her narrative was one of my favorites in the entire novel, because both she and Merry defy expectations and flout convention by taking their fates into their own hands, twisting prophecy in the most unexpected ways.  After reading The Return of the King, she has quickly become my favorite female character in the entire series if not my favorite character, period.

I also enjoyed the way Tolkien delicately balances his story between the threat of two vastly dissimilar endings.  The Return of the King could just as easily turn into a tragedy as conclude happily.  The suspense he sets—the breathless moments of anticipation, the expectation that the entire quest could go awry—thrilled me and, inevitably, left me cheering as the story comes to a close.

Speaking of the conclusion, the end of the novel wasn’t quite the ending I expected.  After three books (four, including The Hobbit) and, no doubt, well over a thousand pages, an ending is a well-deserved reward, but Tolkien is a crafty fellow and the story doesn’t simply end once the quest is finished.  Tolkien throws in an additional few chapters, before giving readers the conclusion they so richly deserved.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed these last few moments; however, it was unexpected the first time.

The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien

Reviewed by Ambrea

With the dissolution of the Fellowship, Frodo and Sam have struck out on their own for the gates of Mordor, while Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn go on a frantic search for Merry and Pippin as they are taken farther and farther away in the clutches of Saruman’s orcs.  Great battles and great hardships will ensure as the remaining members of the Fellowship are pushed to their limits in their desperate fight to hold off both the foes of Orthanc and Barad-Dur.  And Sam Gamgee, loyal and courageous companion to Frodo, will face the most difficult decision of his life as they draw closer to the dark, arid lands of the Dark Lord.

Like The Fellowship of the Ring, Tolkien crafts an intricate story with beautiful scenery and amazing characters, who will steal your heart and last forever in your memory.  (I’m talking about Treebeard and Eowyn here.  Although I love Sam to death and I still have a lingering crush on Aragorn, I adore Treebeard and, as always, I love a good, strong female character—and Eowyn does not disappoint.)

In The Two Towers, Tolkien further develops his characters and expands upon their relationships, creating intricate webs of connections that stretch across the entirety of Middle-earth.  Gimli and Legolas, despite the ancient animosity exist between their races, have become close friends; Aragorn has ventured closer to embracing his destiny; while Merry and Pippin have begun growing into warriors in their own right, finding ways to survive even when the odds are stacked against them.

It’s interesting to see how these characters I’ve loved have changed and, more importantly, to see how their paths change with the introduction of new characters, like Eowyn or Treebeard or Faramir or, most importantly, Gollum.  (Gollum, also known as Smeagol, is one of those interesting characters that sticks out in a reader’s mind.  I’ve often wondered where Tolkien received inspiration for him; I mean, he’s such an odd character that I’ve never noticed his like anywhere else in literature.  He’s also unexpectedly important to the climax of the trilogy—just keep that in mind!)

The pace of The Two Towers is another aspect that has changed.  Readers can feel the greater urgency as they read the story—conflict in Rohan is brewing on the horizon, Saruman is stretching his arm wide in a grab for power, and Frodo and Sam are drawing ever closer to Mordor and the destruction of the Ring…or themselves.  The tension of the story is palpable and, worse, it leaves you with an awful cliffhanger.  I immediately had to continue with the third novel, Return of the King, because I simply couldn’t rest easy with the fates of Frodo and Sam and, well, everyone else hanging in the balance.

Yes, I have read the books.  (Three times, to be precise.)  But that’s exactly what makes Tolkien’s books so wonderful to read:  even when you know what will happen in the next few chapters, you still want to keep up with the story—it’s just too good to put aside.

I will note that the formatting in this novel does drive me a bit batty.  Once the Fellowship is shattered, the story splits into two parts:  the journey of Sam and Frodo as they continue their journey to Mordor, and then everyone else.  Tolkien doesn’t take pity on his readers and alternate his chapters; instead, he starkly divides them.  Throughout the first half of the novel, I was constantly wondering what happened to Frodo and Sam—did they make it through Emin Muil?  Were they really going to cross the Dead Marshes?—but, once I left the sundered remains of the Fellowship behind, I couldn’t help wondering what was happening—was Pippin going to be okay?  What exactly is a palantír, and why is it so dangerous?  And was Aragorn ever going to make it to Gondor?

To say the least, I was frustrated.  Luckily, The Return of the King is a little more forgiving and keeps you apprised of all the adventures at once, bringing the threads of the narrative together in an amazing climax.  But that’s for the next review.

Note:  In honor of National Library Week and the return of "Game of Thrones," we will be running Ambrea's reviews of Tolkien's trilogy plus a nonfiction book about Middle Earth this week, along with the Nevermore report. Tomorrow's post will be the Nevermore report; Ambrea's review of The Return of the King  will run on Thursday.

The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien

Reviewed by Ambrea

The One Ring—the ancient Ring of Power crafted by the Dark Lord, Sauron—is a powerful weapon in the wrong hands, or the right ones.  Imbued with incredible power, the Ring is dangerous and it can twist good intentions into evil acts.  For centuries, Sauron has waited in the depths of Mordor, biding his time until he can return reclaim the One Ring and return to his ancient throne and cover Middle-earth in darkness—forever.

Frodo Baggins, however, has no use for dark lords and rings and adventures.  He’s a hobbit who lives in the Shire, a collection of peaceful farm villages in the far north of Middle-earth, and spends his days in comfort within Bag End.  But when one of Bilbo’s old trinkets—a simple, unassuming gold ring—falls into his hands, Frodo and his halfling friends (Sam, Merry, and Pippin) are suddenly thrust into an adventure the likes of which no hobbit has ever seen.  Together, with the rest of the Fellowship, they will try to destroy One Ring and save Middle-earth.

Before I begin my review, I want to start with a full disclosure:  I love The Lord of the Rings.  I have read the trilogy four times, not including the times I’ve read The Hobbit, and I’m working on The Silmarillion.  I own all of the movies, sketchbooks from illustrators Alan Lee and John Howe, plus I’ve read some of the other associated works (like Children of Hurin).  The Lord of the Rings is near and dear to my heart, so, fair warning, I will happily talk about it for hours if allowed.

That said, I’ll try to keep my review succinct.

I first picked up The Fellowship of the Ring in middle school, after I watched the movie and promptly fell in love with it (and, admittedly, Aragorn).  More recently, I had the chance of rereading the novel as an adult and I’m glad to say it only gets better with time.  Tolkien’s writing is beautiful, a pure pleasure to read.  Although it’s very easy to get bogged down with the details—for instance, starting off with reading a treatise on the history of Hobbiton and learning all about the state of pipeweed within the Shire can be a little off-putting—I found it was easy to follow along once I settled into the natural flow of the story.

The Fellowship of the Ring sets the stage for the entire trilogy, which means there is a fair amount of history to sift through and a lot of characters to meet, but I found them to all be enchanting or endearing by turns.  For example, I love the ever-faithful Sam with his down-to-earth hobbit sense, and I enjoyed meeting the playful Tom Bombadil inside the Old Forest.  Honestly, I adored the entire Fellowship, even as they struggled to get along (dwarves and elves, as I have learned, are notorious for fighting).

More importantly, readers will find a lot of history and mythology in The Fellowship of the Ring.  Tolkien very obviously draws inspiration from known mythology, such as Norse and Greek and English folklore; however, he often incorporates these resources in subtle ways to create an incredibly detailed and intricate world full of competing histories, mythologies, folklores, and religions.  This first novel only gives us a glimpse into the enormity of Middle-earth.  Like the hobbits, readers are only just reaching out into the great wide world and learning more about Gondor, Rohan, Rivendell, Moria, and Mordor.

Overall, The Fellowship of the Ring is an extraordinary book.  It’s beautifully written, well crafted, exciting and endearing—and, well, it’s just plain wonderful.  I’ll be the first to admit, it can be a difficult novel to start.  With two more books to follow, plus a prequel and other “lost books,” it can seem rather daunting; however, once the Fellowship is gathered in Rivendell, the pace of the story picks up significantly and speeds along to a devastating climax.

It’s well worth reading, either for long-time fans of fantasy or newcomers to the genre.  In particular, it’s a great starting point for anyone just diving into Tolkien’s work or fantasy novels as a whole.  The Lord of the Rings has made an indelible mark on writing, and it’s always interesting to see the little threads of Tolkien’s influence within the writing of other authors, like George R.R. Martin, Christopher Paolini, or R.A. Salvatore.

Note:  In honor of National Library Week and the return of "Game of Thrones," we will be running Ambrea's reviews of Tolkien's trilogy plus a nonfiction book about Middle Earth this week, along with the Nevermore report. Return tomorrow for her review of The Two Towers.

Nevermore: Theodore Roosevelt, Hearts, Munich, Autopsies, and Middle Earth

To kick off Nevermore this week, we welcomed back an old friend to our midst and eagerly listened to her review of David McCullough’s Mornings on Horseback.   A National Book Award-winner, Mornings on Horseback:  The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life, and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt was a fascinating biography on the Roosevelt family and the indomintable Theodore Roosevelt.  Our reader was particularly impressed by McCullough’s incredibly thorough—and highly detailed—biography, especially since she had read it during a visit to Medora and the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.  She was fascinated by the personal correspondences of the Roosevelt family, which McCullough included, saying she was struck by the amount of insight they offered into their family life and, more importantly, how the Roosevelts’ would sometimes navigate around personal issues (such as Theodore’s ill health, or his brother’s mysterious addiction, or his sister’s childhood injury).  Overall, she said it was a fascinating book and offered unparalleled insight into the Roosevelt family.

Next, our readers discussed Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King.  A dark and haunting collection of narratives, Hearts in Atlantis follows several stories that are deeply rooted in the sixties—and the Vietnam War.  In “Low Men in Yellow Coats,” eleven-year-old Bobby Garfield learns a haunting secret about his idyllic hometown and discovers that adults are not always rescuers, but dangers; in “Hearts in Atlantis,” a group of college kids become addicted to a simple card game and discover the possibilities—and dangers—of protesting the war; while in “Blind Willie” and “Why We’re in Vietnam” and “Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling,” recurring characters find themselves in a post-Vietnam America with the haunting images of the war lingering over their lives.  Our reader said Hearts in Atlantis was a complex story that developed intriguing, fully-imagined characters.  He called it an excellent novel, saying he finished it in just a week—and “at 672 pages, you know it was good,” he said.

Switching gears from the Vietnam War, Nevermore ventured back to the early days of World War II with Jacqueline Winspear’s favorite detective, Maisie Dobbs.  In Journey to Munich, Maisie is once again drafted by the British Secret Service.  This time, she’s sent to Dachau to recover a recently released British prisoner—but there’s a catch:  she has to go under the guise of his daughter to whom she bears a striking resemblance.   Not all is as it seems in Munich, and Maisie Dobbs must once more put her life on the line if she hopes to save herself and her mission.  Our reader said Journey to Munich was a fantastic spy adventure with plenty of mystery and intrigue.  She noted she became really attached to the characters, growing anxious when they were in danger and hoping for the best possible fate.  She became completely immersed in the book, which is a hallmark of a good mystery.

Additionally, Nevermore looked at Morgue:  A Life in Death by Vincent DiMaio.  Gritty and enthralling, DiMaio’s narrative is a look at the complex technology and craft of medical examiners, following his 40 year professional career—and spanning more than 9,000 autopsies (some of which made national headlines).  Both informative and compelling, Morgue:  A Life in Death is a fascinating that manages to chronicle the history of medical and criminal pathologists and offers insight into one of the most macabre—and intriguing—professions in the justice system.  Our reader, who is an ardent fan of true crime novels and police procedural and mysteries, said she really enjoyed DiMaio’s book.  She loved the attention to detail and the author’s personality, which shines through the entire narrative; moreover, she liked that it gave insight into what really happens in morgues and offered an intimate glimpse into the science behind criminal pathology.  She had only high praise for Morgue, especially since pictures were included.

Last, our readers stopped to look at a classic:  The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien.  Taken from the stories he sketched throughout his illustrious career, The Silmarillion is a fascinating and enthralling look at the First Age of Middle Earth.  Before The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, before even The Children of Hurin, J.R.R. Tolkein’s Silmarillion explores the world of Middle Earth when the elves reigned supreme and the first Dark Lord set his sights on the three Silmarils, rings of power created by the most gifted of elves.  Overall, our Nevermore reader enjoyed looking through Tolkien’s collection.  He said, “[It’s] curious, but good.”  It’s well-written and detailed, since maps and a lengthy appendix with additional stories, genealogies, glossaries and elvish dictionaries are included, reflecting much of the style that he liked in The Lord of the Rings; however, he was most impressed by the story.  Intricate and beautifully written, he said it’s an amazing novel for fans of Lord of the Rings and any of Tolkien’s other works.