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A review by josiah17
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Alright, my review is definitely going to be controversial, but here we go.
Fellowship of The Ring: 3/5
The Two Towers: 3.75/5
Return of The King: 3.5/5
(These ratings are inflated a bit because it is LOTR. I'd definitely rate them lower if I didn't try to set aside my issues with the writing style)
After finishing the books (not the appendices yet), I can put aside some of my issues with the writing style and appreciate the story for how simply epic and revolutionary it is. I can absolutely appreciate and acknowledge what LOTR did for the genre of fantasy. It practically created it. However, these books are not perfect by any means, and I think many people overrate them. Maybe this is just because I'm finding myself to be more of a modern fantasy reader, but the writing style was soooo difficult to read sometimes. That, and many parts of the stories were simply too boring and slow. Tolkien gives several exposition dumps of Middle Earth history throughout that I just found myself skimming through most of the time. Sometimes it felt more like a chore to continue reading this.
The dialogue is another area where I had difficulty reading. It wasn't horrible, but some conversations were just confusing.
Additionally, I didn't find many of the action sequences to be particularly engaging. But that's not really a big issue for me. It's mostly the writing style and the slow parts of the story that hurt the rating for me.
I also think the fact that I've seen the films and therefore I know the general outline of the story influenced my reading experience in a negative way.
However, I must reiterate that this story is simply epic. I definitely prefer the ending in the books to the ending in the films. And everything with Gollum is just absolutely excellent. Overall, it was a solid read.
Fellowship of The Ring: 3/5
The Two Towers: 3.75/5
Return of The King: 3.5/5
(These ratings are inflated a bit because it is LOTR. I'd definitely rate them lower if I didn't try to set aside my issues with the writing style)
After finishing the books (not the appendices yet), I can put aside some of my issues with the writing style and appreciate the story for how simply epic and revolutionary it is. I can absolutely appreciate and acknowledge what LOTR did for the genre of fantasy. It practically created it. However, these books are not perfect by any means, and I think many people overrate them. Maybe this is just because I'm finding myself to be more of a modern fantasy reader, but the writing style was soooo difficult to read sometimes. That, and many parts of the stories were simply too boring and slow. Tolkien gives several exposition dumps of Middle Earth history throughout that I just found myself skimming through most of the time. Sometimes it felt more like a chore to continue reading this.
The dialogue is another area where I had difficulty reading. It wasn't horrible, but some conversations were just confusing.
Additionally, I didn't find many of the action sequences to be particularly engaging. But that's not really a big issue for me. It's mostly the writing style and the slow parts of the story that hurt the rating for me.
I also think the fact that I've seen the films and therefore I know the general outline of the story influenced my reading experience in a negative way.
However, I must reiterate that this story is simply epic. I definitely prefer the ending in the books to the ending in the films. And everything with Gollum is just absolutely excellent. Overall, it was a solid read.