The Fellowship of the Ring
Fantasy, High Fantasy
J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings, Book # 1
HarperCollins
July 29th 1954
eBook
576
English
January 9, 2020 January 20, 2020
Continuing the story begun in The Hobbit, this is the first part of Tolkien’s epic masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, featuring the definitive text and a detailed map of Middle-earth.
Sauron, the Dark Lord, has gathered to him all the Rings of Power – the means by which he intends to rule Middle-earth. All he lacks in his plans for dominion is the One Ring – the ring that rules them all – which has fallen into the hands of the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins.
In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s great work of imaginative fiction has been labelled both a heroic romance and a classic fantasy fiction. By turns comic and homely, epic and diabolic, the narrative moves through countless changes of scene and character in an imaginary world which is totally convincing in its detail.
About the book
How can I review such a popular and well-liked book when I didn’t like it? Maybe because I have already seen the movie, and honestly I never liked reading a book after seeing the cinematic transposition (which is also why I have not watched Games of Thrones and I think I will never watch it, since Martin will never finish his work), but I found it somewhat… I don’t know, boring? Very, very slow. I read it because Tolkien is said to be the father of the fantasy genre and having approached this genre last year I said to myself, maybe it’s better to start from the beginning. What a wrong choice to make!
I am not able, honestly, to even summarise this first volume. What happened? I believe nothing. Frodo is left with the ring and with his friends he leaves to destroy it, but during the journey he finds obstacles. That’s all I can say because that’s what the book gave me.
I saw a video on Youtube where it says that if we like modern fantasy, the Lord of the Rings isn’t a book for us and I think that’s why (in addition to having already seen the movie).
I can’t say anything about the various descriptions and details because obviously they are described in an impeccable way, but it never went on. For my taste (because that’s where we differentiate each other) it’s too slow. And honestly I did not understand the purpose of this book or rather I know the purpose from the movie and very likely, my attention was not really 100%, but it seems a company that doesn’t know what to do… But maybe I didn’t understand the real meaning (because the attention was gone as soon as I opened the book) but I don’t see the purpose of this story. Frodo has to destroy the ring, ok, I already knew that, but he travels far and wide and never reaches his destination. I know there are two more books, and there is a version with all the books in one volume but if I had to read the whole book in a single volume I would have hanged myself from boredom! In addition to DNF it immediately.
I don’t think I will continue. I repeat, I probably didn’t like it because of the movie I’ve already seen (when you know the story it isn’t that good and that’s why I never re-read books). Maybe if I hadn’t seen it I would have liked it a little more, at least 3 stars? Of course I can’t say for sure …
I’m sorry if this is one of your favourite books. It is very likely that I understand nothing, but also, no that’s not true. To each his own. So if you liked it, good. I am happy for you.
At least I removed a book from my TBR (and maybe two more) and without spending a euro since I borrowed it from the library.
1 coffee on “The Fellowship of the Ring”