Review: The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1) by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It did not disappoint!

The narration sometimes meanders, and there is a lot of stuff that just seem to be "extra" to the story - like scenes and characters that feel more like deviation from the plot, perhaps it's just some niche worldbuilding. There is a lot of poems and songs, that are not always interesting; and there are some chapters that go nowhere (I am looking at you, Tom Bombadil!), and a lot of what are essentially descriptions of hiking (going up the hill, down the hill, passing woods, it's nighttime, and so on and on).

I had already seen the Peter Jackson movies, and now that I have read the book, I have to say that this is one of the rare cases in which the book was not far superior to the movie - there were just good in different ways! While the book expands a lot on the lore, which I like, the movie streamlines the story, and this is very welcome. It removes a lot of the "extra" material, it shortens the hiking, and simplifies the dialog. The movie also improved on two aspects of the book that I didn't like. First, I didn't particularly like the relationship between Frodo and Sam in the book - the way Sam is a servant and Frodo is his master. Sam was too subservient, only thought of pleasing or helping his master, he was not his own person. The most positive reading of their relationship is that it's similar to Batman and Alfred, master and butler, but still doesn't feel right. Second, I didn't like how the "Fellowship" of the ring didn't seem to have any obligation to their mission. In the Council of Elrond, Elrond tells the members of the fellowship that they were selected to go with Frodo - but they are under no obligation to go with him to the end, to see the mission through. They specifically talk how they can leave at any time they feel like; they don't need to swear to help, there is no oath or code of honor. And at times they even indicate that they go with Frodo because at most they feel bad about leaving him alone; they never really see this as *the mission to save the world*. It's just weird. The movie does change this, making the Fellowship more committed to the cause. For example, the movie adds the memorable sentence, "You Have My Sword, and My Bow, and My Axe", so that at least they swear some sort of loyalty to Frodo, while that doesn't really happen in the book.

But on the whole, the descriptions, though long, were interesting; the action was good; and lore was intriguing. It was a good read.

Finally, I just wanted to add that I "read" the audiobook version, and the narration by Andy Serkis was fantastic! Even the parts that would be dull were given a lot of life by the narrator. I think that it made a huge impact on how much I appreciated the book.


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