|
|
Reviewed by: Heather M
Rating: 8/10
Genre: Fantasy
398 pages/1954
|
The Fellowship of the Ring
by
J.R.R. Tolkien
I tried to read this book two or three times in the past 10 years but
always put it down shortly into the beginning. The most difficult
aspect of reading this book for me is the way it's written. The
descriptions and way in which the characters talk have an archaic
quality, and flow and dialogue just didn't form into my mind easily.
It did get better for me though as the story continued.
The very hardest part of the book was getting through the prologue, and
the beginning of the story took awhile to improve as well. In the
beginning there's a lot of discussion about things to do with Hobbits,
and frankly I found it very boring. It gets better once Frodo is on
the road but even then, I found if I put the book down I wasn't dying
to pick it back up again.
The story picks up more when they meet Strider, which is around page
160. And once they reach Rivendell, around page 210 the book makes a
big turn for the better. From then on I was much more interested reading
from the book each night.
Other cons of the story? Names of other lands and places are mentioned
a lot but you're not always given a lot of information as to where
those places are and details of them. That sort of thing bugs me, and
I found myself flipping to the back of the book a lot to study the
maps.
The second half of the story is descriptive and full of adventures, but
again perhaps due the different style of writing the book wasn't quite
as gripping as it could have been. It's not to say that it's
uninteresting or not worth reading, just a little hard. I did enjoy it
overall and am glad I read it, and I do plan to read the second and
third books at a later point.See this same book reviewed by Kim
Five most recent reviews:
Friday by Robert A. Heinlein (Kim)
The Bondwoman's Narrative by Hannah Crafts (Kim)
Eon by Greg Bear (Cath)
Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb (Kim)
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom (Kim)
000041
|
