The Fellowship of the Ring

J.R.R. Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings Part 1

Summary:
In a sleepy village in the Shire, a young hobbit is entrusted with an immense task. He must make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ruling Ring of Power – the only thing that prevents the Dark Lord Sauron’s evil dominion.

Plot:

This story has so many twists and turns an things happening it would be impossible to sum it up in a couple of sentences. There’s a lot of action, a lot of beauty, some pretty sad parts, and some that are more humorous. I know this is not a trilogy, and I know Tolkien wrote it as one (very long) novel, but since that novel would take forever to finish, I’m doing my review in three parts. However I don’t see this as a series, but as a very long story. This is a very long, very detailed story, and at times it becomes almost too detailed, but that is Tolkien’s style and I really like the way he wrote these novels. They’re different from most of the other fantasy novels I’ve read in so many ways.

Characters:

This book gets a little confusing at times because there are just so many different characters. You get to know the main ones pretty soon, but the other, less important characters gets a little muddled. This is not really a problem, you don’t need to remember all the characters for the story to make sense. I loved all the characters. I think they’re flawed enough to make them believable (even the ones who are described as flawless, like the elven ‘Queen’ figure), yet they’re likable, and most of them are honourable. The anti-heroes aren’t described very graphically, but the little you know of them is enough to make you nervous when they’re near.

Who should read this:

13+, there’s no language or sexual content, but I wouldn’t suggest this to younger readers, because of the length of this story. It is not an easy read. The style of writing is not hard to understand, but it’s very descriptive and might bore some people. If you’re a die-hard fantasy fan, you should definitely have read this already. I do recommend reading ‘The Hobbit’ first, since it’s shorter, but written in the same style. It will help you decide if you will enjoy this novel or not.

My rating:

I enjoyed this novel much more than the hobbit. Therefore I must give it a higher rating. I truly loved this book, and I will definitely be reading it again, as it’s one of those books where you will discover something new every time you read it. 5/5

Quote:

‘It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.’

I'll link my review for the movie here as soon as I watch it! Read my Review for Part 2: The Two Towers and Part 3: The Return of the King!