The Return of the King by J.R.R. TolkienMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
The conclusion to the Lord of the Rings trilogy - It is a satisfying conclusion, very epic. It is long, longer than what I thought, with lots of information, backstory, and worldbuilding. I actually liked the worldbuilding in this book even more than in the previous two.
I also like that right at the start of the book, it reframes the entire trilogy as a fight between Gandalf and Sauron - not a direct fight, but a game in which Gandalf is moving his pieces against the Enemy. This makes Gandalf role and actions a lot more satisfying - sometimes is mystifying why Gandalf acts the way he does; if he is as powerful as we think, why doesn't he go against Sauron? Why doesn't he ever use some teleportation spell, or fireball, or anything other than light shows to do anything? So in this reframing, it's because he doesn't want to fight Sauron; he wants Middle Earth to fight Sauron; he is interfering just enough to make the right people meet each other, and nudge things along towards a good outcome.
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