LOTR opinion
5 stars
favorite novel of all time. better than any other fantasy world imo. Tolkein is a mastermind.
The Fellowship of the Ring is the first of three volumes of the epic novel The Lord of the Rings by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It is followed by The Two Towers and The Return of the King. It takes place in the fictional universe of Middle-earth. It was originally published on 29 July 1954 in the United Kingdom. The volume consists of a foreword, in which the author discusses his writing of The Lord of the Rings, a prologue titled "Concerning Hobbits, and other matters", and the main narrative in Book I and Book II.
favorite novel of all time. better than any other fantasy world imo. Tolkein is a mastermind.
(Note: review based on one of numerous rereading of the book.)
What started out as a request for another story about hobbits (after the success of "The Hobbit") grew in the telling until it became an epic tale about the quest to destroy the One Ring of Sauron; and how it was the 'least of heroes', unlooked-for even by the wise, would prove to be one to fulfil the quest and free Middle-Earth from domination by the Dark Lord.
This book has been released in many editions and in many forms over the years. The one I read was a one-volume edition that celebrates the birth of J.R.R. Tolkien and includes fifty paintings specially commissioned from artist Alan Lee.
Reading it now after watching the Peter Jackson films, it is easy to put the actors in the film into the scenes from the book, modified by the illustrations of Alan …
(Note: review based on one of numerous rereading of the book.)
What started out as a request for another story about hobbits (after the success of "The Hobbit") grew in the telling until it became an epic tale about the quest to destroy the One Ring of Sauron; and how it was the 'least of heroes', unlooked-for even by the wise, would prove to be one to fulfil the quest and free Middle-Earth from domination by the Dark Lord.
This book has been released in many editions and in many forms over the years. The one I read was a one-volume edition that celebrates the birth of J.R.R. Tolkien and includes fifty paintings specially commissioned from artist Alan Lee.
Reading it now after watching the Peter Jackson films, it is easy to put the actors in the film into the scenes from the book, modified by the illustrations of Alan Lee of the various places in Middle-Earth. And after all these years, the words in the book still have the 'power' to bring the reader to Middle-Earth and put you in the footsteps of the Fellowship of the Ring as they strive to do what they can to thwart the plans of Sauron and distract him for the peril that is slowly entering his stronghold on hobbit feet.
Let's be real, I'm never finishing this series and I just need to accept that. I love the lore and the world. I love the stories. But I HATE the prose. I'll stick to the extended versions of the films, thank you.
In 1980 Heinlein published a novel called The Number of the Beast. It involved parallel universes, The World as Fiction, and dragged in Lazarus Long, as Heinlein seemed to do in most of his later books. While parts of it were fun, it was also confusing and disjointed in my opinion. I will read any Heinlein for the writing alone, so I am a fan (in fact, I was for a time the webmaster for The Heinlein Society), but I can see that some of his stuff is better than others. So when I heard there was an alternate version of this novel, I had to check it out. And The Pursuit of the Pankera keeps the same basic setting and has the same beginning as The Number of the Beast, but I think it is much better. The plot is a lot more cohesive and the novel just flows …
In 1980 Heinlein published a novel called The Number of the Beast. It involved parallel universes, The World as Fiction, and dragged in Lazarus Long, as Heinlein seemed to do in most of his later books. While parts of it were fun, it was also confusing and disjointed in my opinion. I will read any Heinlein for the writing alone, so I am a fan (in fact, I was for a time the webmaster for The Heinlein Society), but I can see that some of his stuff is better than others. So when I heard there was an alternate version of this novel, I had to check it out. And The Pursuit of the Pankera keeps the same basic setting and has the same beginning as The Number of the Beast, but I think it is much better. The plot is a lot more cohesive and the novel just flows in way the previous didn't. This is the one I will reread in the future. And as a huge fan of the Lensman universe the part of the book that goes there was quite a treat. For those who don't know, the idea of The World as Fiction is that fictional worlds are real in other universes, so the characters here visit Barsoom, Oz, and the Lensman universe. Tons of fun.
There is nothing hard about it if you are able to follow instructions that the author has laid out for you.
As with the other books I really liked it—at least the story bits of Volume 5 and 6. It is great to see how closely the movies followed the books.
After that, some of the appendixes are interesting, but some are not really easy reads.
I am glad that after 20 years of lingering on my to-read list I finally managed to finish this series.
Professor Aldous Crane, knowledgeable about the occult, but a skeptic, is called to retrieve some rare bottles from a fanatic wine collector's cellar. With an exceptionally well-done ambience and a strong narrative voice, the book manages to be entertaining, funny, and chilling at times.
The plot itself is relatively simple and linear, with flashbacks of Aldous' life intertwined into the main narrative. Still, the descriptions are nicely done in a way that creates tension, anticipation, and suspense. The flashbacks are quite entertaining and serve as a way to back up Aldous characterization.
The Professor is the main character and the most well-developed one. The dialogues do a great job of characterizing him, and he was quite funny at times. Boudin, the wine collector, is the only other character we get to know, and his past is mysterious, weird enough to give him a dangerous and enigmatic aura, without going too …
Professor Aldous Crane, knowledgeable about the occult, but a skeptic, is called to retrieve some rare bottles from a fanatic wine collector's cellar. With an exceptionally well-done ambience and a strong narrative voice, the book manages to be entertaining, funny, and chilling at times.
The plot itself is relatively simple and linear, with flashbacks of Aldous' life intertwined into the main narrative. Still, the descriptions are nicely done in a way that creates tension, anticipation, and suspense. The flashbacks are quite entertaining and serve as a way to back up Aldous characterization.
The Professor is the main character and the most well-developed one. The dialogues do a great job of characterizing him, and he was quite funny at times. Boudin, the wine collector, is the only other character we get to know, and his past is mysterious, weird enough to give him a dangerous and enigmatic aura, without going too overboard to risk disbelief. Other characters serve as a great way to enhance both Boudin and Aldous' characters and history but are not really developed further than that.
I definitely recommend this book to anyone who would like a read with a great and chilling ambience. It is a bit short but feels like the right length for the story that is being told. The narrative has some humour intertwined that works really well to give some laughs between the tension — all in all, an entertaining read.
No sound should be there when you're alone."
I forgot that Number of the Beast was my least favorite Heinlein...well, now it's tied for last place.
The book is a collection of interviews from the brave fishermen involved in the rescue operations during the 2018 Kerala floods.
In the Lucid writings, the author narrates the events of bravery, reactions of the affected humans, how each one put their life on the boat leaving behind the economic distress with one mission to save lives, and how victims react in the most unexpected line of religion and caste.
Along with the incidents, the author mentions the history and background of the place, fishermen, society, and the state. As a result, the book reaches closer to any reader. The conditions these fishermen faced during the rescue is beyond normal human capacity.
The book is written in an accessible and straightforward manner. You can read it in a single sitting. The page after page, you can witness the generosity, humanness, dedication, simplicity, and bravery of the fishermen folks.
Kudos for …
The book is a collection of interviews from the brave fishermen involved in the rescue operations during the 2018 Kerala floods.
In the Lucid writings, the author narrates the events of bravery, reactions of the affected humans, how each one put their life on the boat leaving behind the economic distress with one mission to save lives, and how victims react in the most unexpected line of religion and caste.
Along with the incidents, the author mentions the history and background of the place, fishermen, society, and the state. As a result, the book reaches closer to any reader. The conditions these fishermen faced during the rescue is beyond normal human capacity.
The book is written in an accessible and straightforward manner. You can read it in a single sitting. The page after page, you can witness the generosity, humanness, dedication, simplicity, and bravery of the fishermen folks.
Kudos for the author for writing it. You can read complete review in this blog post: anthology.kracekumar.com/post/book_review_rowing_between_the_rooftops/
Ungeschlagen für mich das Beste der Mittelerdebücher ✨✨✨
This is my review of the entire The Lord of the rings trilogy.
It scarcely seems necessary to do a review of this work, it is so well known, and recently turned into a movie series to boot. It is the Platonic ideal of the epic high fantasy genre, and at the heart of Tolkien's work through his life. The first effort in this fantasy world was the children's book The Hobbit, but as it was successful Tolkien's publisher wanted more, and Tolkien obliged. Originally it was intended that the The Lord of the Rings would be the first volume, with the Silmarillion as volume 2, but the publisher decided to break it into three volumes (though each of those three has two parts, so one could as well call it a six-volume work). The overall summary is that the dark lord Sauron created Rings of Power: Three for Elves, …
This is my review of the entire The Lord of the rings trilogy.
It scarcely seems necessary to do a review of this work, it is so well known, and recently turned into a movie series to boot. It is the Platonic ideal of the epic high fantasy genre, and at the heart of Tolkien's work through his life. The first effort in this fantasy world was the children's book The Hobbit, but as it was successful Tolkien's publisher wanted more, and Tolkien obliged. Originally it was intended that the The Lord of the Rings would be the first volume, with the Silmarillion as volume 2, but the publisher decided to break it into three volumes (though each of those three has two parts, so one could as well call it a six-volume work). The overall summary is that the dark lord Sauron created Rings of Power: Three for Elves, 7 for Dwarves, and 9 for Men. Then he created the One ring to rule the others and to corrupt them. He loses this ring in a battle and is trying to get it back, and if he does his power will corrupt all of Middle Earth. The only way to stop him is to destroy the ring, and that can only be done in the fires of Mount Doom where it was originally forged. So a mixed group of Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, and Men, plus the wizard Gandalf, set out to do just that. The work is about all of the adventures they have along the way.
The themes embedded in this work display the discomfort Tolkien had with the modern world, and much of that derives from his experience of World War I. Because of the subsequent World War II and the Cold War, the first World War has faded in the minds of many people. But it was a particularly searing experience to those who lived through it. For example, if you look at the total number of Americans killed in Vietnam over the entire course of the war, that is less than half of the number killed on both sides in just 6-day Battle of the Marne in 1914. Human life was of no account in this war, and the butchery was staggering. It was the modern industrial war, and even the killing was industrialized.. Tolkien displays in The Lord of the Rings a deep disdain for industrialization. And as is the case with so much fantasy, class structure is implicitly important, and some races are irredeemably evil. But it has won many awards, and in 2003 the BBC named it Britain's best novel of all time. Virtually all high fantasy traces its roots to Tolkien.
I imagine most people are familiar with this work, either from reading the original novel or from the recent film series. This book was written as a children's fantasy by Tolkien back in the 1930s, and set the stage for the later Lord of the Rings. The plot is about a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins who is invited to join a company of dwarves who wish to recover their treasure from the dragon Smaug. Bilbo, who had been a pretty simple home-bound soul changes dramatically through the events he experiences and becomes someone much different.
This book was lauded on its publication and deservedly so.
It scarcely seems necessary to do a review of this work, it is so well known, and recently turned into a movie series to boot. It is the Platonic ideal of the epic high fantasy genre, and at the heart of Tolkien's work through his life. The first effort in this fantasy world was the children's book The Hobbit, but as it was successful Tolkien's publisher wanted more, and Tolkien obliged. Originally it was intended that the The Lord of the Rings would be the first volume, with the Silmarillion as volume 2, but the publisher decided to break it into three volumes (though each of those three has two parts, so one could as well call it a six-volume work). The overall summary is that the dark lord Sauron created Rings of Power: Three for Elves, 7 for Dwarves, and 9 for Men. Then he created the One …
It scarcely seems necessary to do a review of this work, it is so well known, and recently turned into a movie series to boot. It is the Platonic ideal of the epic high fantasy genre, and at the heart of Tolkien's work through his life. The first effort in this fantasy world was the children's book The Hobbit, but as it was successful Tolkien's publisher wanted more, and Tolkien obliged. Originally it was intended that the The Lord of the Rings would be the first volume, with the Silmarillion as volume 2, but the publisher decided to break it into three volumes (though each of those three has two parts, so one could as well call it a six-volume work). The overall summary is that the dark lord Sauron created Rings of Power: Three for Elves, 7 for Dwarves, and 9 for Men. Then he created the One ring to rule the others and to corrupt them. He loses this ring in a battle and is trying to get it back, and if he does his power will corrupt all of Middle Earth. The only way to stop him is to destroy the ring, and that can only be done in the fires of Mount Doom where it was originally forged. So a mixed group of Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, and Men, plus the wizard Gandalf, set out to do just that. The work is about all of the adventures they have along the way.
The themes embedded in this work display the discomfort Tolkien had with the modern world, and much of that derives from his experience of World War I. Because of the subsequent World War II and the Cold War, the first World War has faded in the minds of many people. But it was a particularly searing experience to those who lived through it. For example, if you look at the total number of Americans killed in Vietnam over the entire course of the war, that is less than half of the number killed on both sides in just 6-day Battle of the Marne in 1914. Human life was of no account in this war, and the butchery was staggering. It was the modern industrial war, and even the killing was industrialized.. Tolkien displays in The Lord of the Rings a deep disdain for industrialization. And as is the case with so much fantasy, class structure is implicitly important, and some races are irredeemably evil. But it has won many awards, and in 2003 the BBC named it Britain's best novel of all time. Virtually all high fantasy traces its roots to Tolkien.
Amazing if you like the world building / scene setting.
yeah, this book is really good, I guess there is a reason that so many people feel fondly about it, like the characters are friendly to each other and seem concern about each other. Its pretty refreshing.