First time looking at a Tolkien book… I know, don’t shoot the messenger. Especially considering that I finally did sit down and read the giant book that was The Fellowship of the Ring.
I honestly went into reading this thinking that I wouldn’t like it. The bits and pieces of ads that I’ve seen for the movies made me really unsure about it all. However, I am glad that I finally took the plunge, because it was actually pretty good.
The story is actually broken in two sections, in my view. An unknown journey in the first part with just the hobbits as they head off into the unknown, and then a purposed quest with lots of new companions that are all very different and have a much higher level of understanding. This was somewhat annoying, because we shift quite drastically. However, I will say that the first half was a little less action packed and a little more info provided. When we get to the second half, we also got more action, but a few more characters to try and keep track of which was a challenge at times. Those aren’t Mary or John names, and it was difficult for me to recall who everyone was.
There was actually loads of info dumping in this book, but Tolkien made it work for me. Especially in the beginning of the version that I listened to in audiobook form, which gave some insight into the Hobbit stuff. I had not read that “prequel book (if you will), so this was a great way to get the relevant (and some not) information that I missed out on.
I will say the themes of good verses evil, and power corrupting were very well inserted and woven throughout. There were some interesting moments, and definitely a consensus that evil is bad… fancy that! In a lot of the books (particularly fantasy) that we are given right now, we seem to focus more on the villains and trying to give them an “understandable” reason for being the bad guy. To me, this is silly and I would much rather leave them in the villains for villains sake category. Sometimes it’s good to have a redeemable villain, but if the goal is not to have them realise what they did was wrong, let’s leave them firmly in the bad guy camp and move on with our lives. Very obvious lines were drawn in this book, which is something I think we need to take hold of and continue writing.
Good beats evil in the books. It may not win every battle, every day in real life – but that’s the point of a story. Good GETS to win, and evil has to loose. We need to draw the lines really easily and obviously so we can distinguish who we should be rooting for. I LOVE that Tolkien does this, and I was happy to read a book that even though the good guys are flawed (like us all), we ultimately know what the goal is and where we are going.
Bravo.
See You in the Adventures!
Christy Grace
Christy Grace Scarlet Pen 