the Fellowship of the Ring

J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings is probably the most well known fantasy novel of all time. I can only imagine how many copies it has sold well past his death. I have heard that the Lord of the Rings was meant as one book, but because of publishing or some other shenanigans had to be released in three volumes. It was probably considered too long then. That was back in 1954! The first book I have finished, which of course is the Fellowship of the Ring. It's the first third of Tolkein's great masterpiece.

Judging this book is very difficult because it really is only the first third of a whole book. I am reading the Two Towers now, and the book starts on page 403. So to call the Fellowship of the Ring a stand alone book might not be completely accurate. In that sense, I have tried to judge it fairly.

Mostly, I feel like this book is just too slow. There's an epic adventure and things happen, but it's marred by too much talk of I don't know what. It's not like we get to know the characters. I couldn't tell you hardly anything about any of the characters except maybe Gimli. There is hardly any character development, and I guess people defend that by saying it's more of a focus on the culture. That might be true, he has laid a foundation for hundreds of fantasy works. But it doesn't seem like he's writing anything. Wwho are these people? What is the history? Almost anytime anyone ever tries to ask about this, the question is dismissed and nothing is told. I think it's very strange for how much talk of the lore there is, how little of it is actually present. I can't say I'd reccommend this to anyone. With a lot of things, I think the present has just gotten better, and we should only look at these from a historical perspective.

6.5/10