The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien

I can honestly say that I did not enjoy this book whatsoever and was immensely relieved to have finished it. While it doesn't necessarily go hand in hand with the Lord of the Rings books (it can be a standalone) it was sitting on our shelf and I felt compelled to read it and finish the books we owned written by Tolkien.

The Silmarillion is a compilation of stories, history, lore and other things of the elves in the time before the Lord of the Rings series takes place. There are also stories about the dwarves and men of the world as well, but they are not focused on as heavily. Within these tales are little stories of some of the peoples, wars, and goings on in the world at that time, not to mention, a sneak peek at the early lives of Celeborn, Galadriel, and Elrond. Towards the end it also goes over how the rings were made and how they came into the hands of the different people who bore them. There is even a very brief mention of Frodo's part in the histories.

There are so many characters in this novel that none are really fleshed out and to be honest its hard to tell who's who in this book. Most of the people are similar in name and deed and this gets to be very confusing as the book moves along. Indeed, none of the characters stood out to me because of the way this book is put together. I would have liked to hear more on Elrond or Galadriel but instead we are introduced to so many characters in so short of time (and most without interesting stories) that it was like seeing a slide projection of someone's vacation photos; there might have been a few interesting things, but largely you are bored to tears and trying to be nice about the whole experience.

The writing is overly descriptive and does read like a history book. History is not my favorite subject and this made the read excruciating for me. As mentioned before there are so many people, places things that the book is largely unfollowable without a notebook to track what is going on. While there are some glimmers of a good story that caught my interest, they are so short and so few between that it wasn't enough to redeem this book in my eyes. While I recognize that it was probably a personal labor of love for Tolkien, it may not have been the best choice to release the book as is.

I like to read but in this novel I just could not keep up with who, what, where, when and why and it really took from my enjoyment. Die hard fans of Tolkien and history buffs may derive pleasure from reading this book, but I certainly did not.

The Silmarillion
Copyright 1977
442 pages including appendix

The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

This has been my favorite out of all the Lord of the Rings novels. They seemed to get progressively better, of which I'm glad because I wanted to know what all the hype was about since this was my first time reading the series. For those who have never read any of the books as well, don't start at this book, start at the beginning or you can be completely lost in Tolkien's rather largish world.

In this we have two different story lines. One is of Frodo and Sam. When we last left poor Frodo he had been captured by Orcs and taken to a tower as prisoner. Sam has to rescue him, and even when he does, they are left deep behind enemy lines and must make their way to the mountain where the ring can be destroyed. Meanwhile, the rest of the characters are at war. Each has his own place in the war and they must defend Gondor and break the Black Gates of Mordor to survive. But even if they do win, they don't have any idea of what is waiting for them at home after so long a journey.

There is a second part to this book in the appendices. They are filled with lore, language, and history of Middle Earth. While I enjoyed the language section it is interesting to note that history for Middle Earth seems to be written like history in real life, and as such, was kind of boring for me. Despite that though I will not be including this section in my rating of the book as I believe that a good portion of the people will buy the book for the story and find the appendices a bonus.

The characters are better developed and really start coming into their own in this novel. Even the language is more unique to each of them, especially the hobbits. I was sad to see that while Gollum played an important role in this book, it wasn't a very large one. I also still thank that Sam is the best of the hobbits on the journey.

The writing is still very descriptive but doesn't bog down the story quite as much as it does in the others. Towards the end they do seem to make a big deal of names and this can get tedious at points. There is some violence, but that part isn't as descriptive and nothing is really too offensive in this book. Most importantly, since this is the end book, there is a sense of closure.

I'm glad to have finally read all of this series for the first time and mostly enjoyed it. While I don't see myself rereading near in the future, I suspect that I will return to it someday. Its a great fantasy for lovers of the genre.

Return of the King
Copyright 1955
340 pages, with appendices 470 pages

The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien

Having only recently delved into the works of Tolkien recently for the first time, I have to say that I wasn't all that impressed with The Hobbit or The Fellowship of the Ring. While I thought that Tolkien had a fantastic and original idea for his time, his writing left much to be desired for me. I did however, enjoy The Two Towers more than the previously mentioned books despite it having a few flaws for me as well. The Fellowship of the Ring needs to be read before this book, and because of that, I am not going to recap what happens in that book for this review. So be forewarned, the following can contain spoilers for those who haven't read the first book.

Frodo and Sam had taken off for Mordor by themselves, leaving the rest of the Fellowship to its fate. They encounter the mysterious creature Gollum on the way and through capture, convince him to promise to be nice and lead them along the best path to Mordor. Gollum is a tricky character though and not the most trustworthy and leads Sam and Frodo closer to their peril. Meanwhile, Legolas, Aragorn, and Gimli have set off in pursuit of Merry and Pipin, who were captured by Orcs. Along the way they come across the Riders of the Kingdom of Rohan, known for their horses, and in the midst of a terrible war. The war is with the white wizard turned evil, Saruman, and his army of orcs that his is unleashing on the Southern kingdom. They decide to help and turn the odds against this horrible force that is descending upon the land.

The characters in this book aren't quite as developed as in the first one. While we have plenty of background on the Fellowship characters from the previous book, we don't get much in the way of description for the Riders of Rohan or some of the other newer characters. I do have to say that Gollum is still my favorite. The interesting way he has of speaking and his interactions with the Hobbits are very interesting and a pleasure to read.

The writing is very descriptive in other ways and unfortunately this can make the book slow reading at parts. It would have been nice to have more character description as opposed to the multiple instances of describing scenery and legends that aren't even really pertinent to the story. I did find that this book had less song and rhyme than the other and I appreciated that as I tend to skip over them since they distract from the flow of the book. The book isn't very offensive either and despite having battles, not really violent.

I look forward to the last book and seeing if it will be my favorite out of all. My opinion has grown more positive with each book and I hope that it does improve.

The Hobbit
Book 1: The Fellowship of the Ring

The Two Towers
Copyright 1954
398 pages

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

Ok, so I have to say that I enjoyed this book better than "The Hobbit" but it still was a very hard read for me. Somehow I have never read these books until now and starting them as an adult, I think I may get something very different from them than most people do who were introduced to the series at an earlier age. While I admire Tolkien's imagination, I still find some flaws with this book. I've also seen the movies before reading which could also serve to change my views on the book.

We start in the Shire where Frodo Baggins has just inherited Bilbo Baggins (another hobbit we learn about in "The Hobbit")house, furniture, and most especially, a prized ring, after Bilbo has disappeared suddenly and plans to go off traveling again. For years Frodo doesn't worry about the ring and enjoys his time in the Shire just getting along alright. However, Gandalf the Grey wizard returns and gives him some history on this tiny little ring that is very surprising. It is the greatest ring on Middle-Earth and dangerous. It's previous owner Sauron wants it back for his own and has started to send out evil creatures to get it back for himself. If that happens, the world is doomed. Trying to keep it away from the minions, Frodo and some friends, take a journey to the Elven kingdom of Rivendale where they join part of a fellowship that is going to take the ring back to the one place it can be destroyed, but right at the enemy's gates in Mordor. Accompanying Frodo are a few hobbits, an elf, Gandalf, a dwarf, and a couple of humans. They have to pass through much danger and tribulations to try to get Frodo away on his quest as he becomes the Ring-Bearer.

The characters in this novel are interesting, but to me, not enough time is spent on them. I would have loved to hear more about Hobbit's habits or the history of some of the other characters, but instead, the book spends more time detailing other things. Even the elves whom some may know about in the movie aren't described quite as well in the book. In fact, Arwen is barely in this book, which may disappoint some people. He did do a better job on Galadriel who actually did get a larger part in this book. Sam has always been my favorite character and I wish there was more of him in this book.

The writing is extremely descriptive and this bogs down the reader at points in the novel. There are so many names of places and things that we don't even visit in the book that are described that it can serve to confuse a reader and make them wonder why it was even mentioned in the first place. The scenery is described over and over as well which makes for reading that once in awhile I just had to put down as it bored me. My biggest complaint would be all the songs and poems though. I found them distracting and there were so many, I have to confess that I started just skipping over them so I could get on with the story. I might have missed something in the history or backstory because of this, and I would have much rather just had it written normally. That being said there isn't a great deal of violence in this book and not many things offensive either.

All in all I would probably give this book 3.5 stars. It has a great story but its hard wading to get through that story. But I'll move on to the next and see what The Two Towers has to offer.

The Fellowship of the Ring
Copyright 1954
458 pages

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

I'm ashamed to say I have never read the Lord of the Ring series before (I may have started one once but didn't like it and put it back down) and even after seeing the movies, which I did enjoy, I still didn't dive into Tolkien's world. Well I decided to remedy that and picked up the Hobbit, the prequel of sorts to the Lord of the Rings series. I have to say I wasn't all that impressed. It was an inventive story for sure, and Tolkien had a lot of imagination, but there were a lot of flaws in this book in my opinion.

We are introduced to Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit that likes to make sure meals are regular and a comfy chair exists in his hole in the ground. He is surprised one day by the wizard Gandalf who brings thirteen dwarves to meet his acquaintance. They tell him he is to come on a journey and help the dwarves so that they may regain their homeland and treasure from a dragon who has stolen it all. Nothing is ever as easy as it seems though and they encounter many hardships and perils on the road. Not a lot of people seem to like this merry band of travelers and they are constantly fighting for their lives and freedom. But some other things do happen, and a lot changes when Bilbo finds a very mysterious ring.

The characters in this novel are well developed. I was glad to see Gollum as he is my favorite character in the movies and he was well written in these pages. Bilbo was also done splendidly and you were able to get a good sense of what Hobbits are like from him. Even the dwarves, as many as there were, had distinct personalities.

The writing is where I found some faults. This book is extremely rushed! It seems like they were no sooner getting into trouble than they were out of it and into some different sort of trouble. Because of this, there didn't seem to be any suspense to the novel and it would have been nice if Tolkien had settled on a few instances and described them well, then had many that hardly got any description at all. He seemed to repeat himself too with our heroes getting captured at least four times, although I stopped counting after awhile. That being said, even the violence in this novel was tame and nothing was offensive that I could find so it is appropriate for all readers.

I wish I would have enjoyed the book more. I do hear that this is the weakest out of the series so I will continue on. I just hope they get a little better as right now I'm not sure what all the hype is about.

The Hobbit
Copyright 1937
306 pages