Genre: Classic Fantasy
Date Published: November 1954
Publisher: George Allen & Unwin
# Of Pages/Listening Time: 322 pages/16 hours 40 minutes
Goodreads | Audible
Synopsis: The Two Towers is the second volume of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic saga, The Lord of the Rings.
The Fellowship has been forced to split up. Frodo and Sam must continue alone towards Mount Doom, where the One Ring must be destroyed. Meanwhile, at Helm’s Deep and Isengard, the first great battles of the War of the Ring take shape.
In this splendid, unabridged audio production of Tolkien’s great work, all the inhabitants of a magical universe - hobbits, elves, and wizards - spring to life. Rob Inglis’ narration has been praised as a masterpiece of audio.
My Rating:
★★★★★
.....For continuing to be a masterpiece in fantasy literature
My Thoughts:
Every time I read this series, I end up loving it even more! One thing I really enjoy about this particular book is the fact that the story separates to follow the different members of the Fellowship. I feel like I’m following my favorite characters with more detail this time around (my favorites, by the way, are Legolas and Gimli, and Merry and Pippin.) Plus, this is the story where a lot of the action really starts to unfold, and the battles become much bigger and more significant.
One of my favorite parts is the part involving the Ents. The Ents are awesome creatures! Treebeard is a character you can’t help but love right off the bat, and I really admire them when they go off to war against Saruman. It’s one of those triumphant moments in a story where you feel a sense of justice.
My other favorite parts are the ones involving dialogue with both Legolas and Gimli. This is the book where you really see their friendship growing, and I love to see these two extremely different and distinct personalities overcome their opposing feelings to become almost brothers. Plus, Gimli is such a fun and gruff character, and I love to read his reactions to everything.
The part of the book that I don’t really like but I know is important both as literature and as part of the story, is the final half the book, where we follow Frodo and Sam as they enter Mordor. Compared to the rest of the book, I found this half a little boring (*gasp!*), but I still admired parts of it. For example, I really admire Sam’s strength in this part. He is so loyal to Frodo, and does whatever he can to help and protect him. In my opinion, between Frodo and Sam, I’d say Sam is the strongest character by far.
This part also shows the best and worst of Gollum/Smeagol. You can’t help but feel a little sorry for him, and you begin to wonder where to place him in terms of protagonists and antagonists. At one point Sam turns around to ask Smeagol “do you see yourself as the villain or the hero?”, but he’s not there to answer, so you end up wondering: “is he a hero or a villain?” I found that to be a bit thought-provoking, something I always love in a story.
Overall, this is an excellent middle book in a trilogy, although middle books are never my absolute favorites. Anyone who considers themselves to be a lover fantasy literature would love this book. If you haven’t read this yet, you really should. I also recommend, once again, listening to the audio-lecture conducted by Professor Michael D.C. Drout. It’s called Rings, Swords, and Monsters: Exploring Fantasy Literature, and it really is a fascinating lecture, particularly with regards to the J.R.R. Tolkien and his works.
Review From 2018:
I admit, it took me a while to get into this book this time around. I think my comfort reading craze had started shifting towards the mystery genre when I began to read this.
That being said, however, everything I said in my previous review is still true. The Ents, Gollum, everything. This is still a favorite series of mine, and I will always enjoy it...but I guess I just wasn't in the right frame of mind for this particular story at this particular time. Ah well. I'm still planning on completing the trilogy, but I think I'll read the final book some time next month.
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