This book is different than the first book of the trilogy; it's very sad, depressing in many ways, since the reader identifies heavily with Frodo and as Frodo suffers so much in the book the reader suffers with him, very vividly.



This is a very heart-touching conclusion to such a powerful series of books, a book that will bring tears to your eyes many times, I can assure you. Frodo finally reaches his destination of Mordor and the Cracks of Doom--but what happens there I won't reveal, for the sake of all those that haven't yet read this book. The war comes to a climax, and we see Aragorn fighting bravely along with all the other members of the Fellowship we have grown to love so much throughout the trilogy--Legolas, Gimli, Pippin, and Merry--as well as other new characters Tolkien introduces as the story develops.

The story finishes in a very unexpected way, at least it seemed to me that it did. I of course won't reveal any of the ending but I will say that it left me feeling a bit sad. I actually didn't discover what it really meant until I'd read more of Tolkien's books--and now I'm actually glad the way it finished, as it seems to me to be the most appropriate way Tolkien could have wrapped up Frodo's story.

Once you've read the trilogy, I recommend going on next to The Hobbit. I've heard that it's actually better to start with The Hobbit and then go on to LOTR, but I've also heard the if you start with The Hobbit you might not like it so much. I started with the LOTR trilogy and then read The Hobbit, and to be quite honest I felt that was the best way to do it. Once you've finished The Hobbit and LOTR, no matter what order you read them, I wouldn't recommend any other book of Tolkien's except The Silmarillion. All of the other books would be much to complicated for someone who hasn't yet read The Silmarillion. In some ways I almost like The Silmarillion better than the LOTR trilogy or The Hobbit, but I'll explain why in my review of The Silmarillion.

Since the movie for this book hasn't yet come out, I can't recommend it as I have the other two movies. I do, however, want to say that reading these three books of the LOTR was really worth my time. I read all three books in three days, a book a day--I couldn't put them down! I really, really, really recommend all three of these books, or any of Tolkien's books, really. These books are not only good reading, but are lessons in the art of writing. A very valuable treasure!

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Created Jul 17, 2003 at 10:20pm • Submit your own review...