The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, Part 1)

Rating:
Summary: LOTR Rocks!
Review: This is a virtuoso performance by Rob Inglis. His portrayals of all the characters is superb, and he (almost) never mixes up their voices. His understanding and interpretation of Tolkien is marvelous, and he has the perfect voice for the job. Wouldn't it have been nice if Jackson could have found a role for Rob Ingis in the films? He'd have made a great Tom Bombadil, but let's not get into that.

An earlier reviewer pointed out the problem of inconsistent disc and track naming, but that flaw exists with the online database, not the CDs themselves.

For any fan of the book or the films, get these audio CDs. Nothing better on a long drive.

Rating:
Summary: The journey begins
Review: This is the first book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Tolkien takes the world of Middle Earth that he developed and continues the tale of the ring. The ring first appears to us in 'The Hobbit'. The hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, keeps this special ring he found on his journey to help the dwarves. This book picks up the story decades after 'The Hobbit'.

Bilbo has aged and in the course of celebrating his birthday leaves the Shire. To everyone's surprise Bilbo gives everything to his nephew Frodo, including the ring. Many years go by, and the wizard returns with a warning to take the ring and leave.

Frodo and three friends begin the trip. Along the way the meet the Ranger who helps them get to Rivendell, home of the elves. At Rivendell the true identity of the ring is revealed and a course of action is decided upon. The ring must be destroyed.

A band of nine people (men, elf, dwarf, wizard, and hobbits) form the Fellowship and begin the journey. This book sets the stage for the coming War of the Ring. We are introduced the members of the fellowship, gives us some background on Sauron, and the rings of power. We get a sense for the evil that the group is up against and the obstacles in their way. And soon realize that this journey is near impossible and may just be delaying the rise of Sauron.

At times this book is hard to read. Tolkien goes into great detail regarding the history of Middle Earth and the characters involved in the story. This may hard for some readers to get through or keep track of. I, on the other hand, think these details add to the richness of the story. The story is wonderful and has much more detail than the recent movies. If you enjoyed 'The Hobbit' and/or the films, I would recommend reading the books to get the full story of the ring.

Rating:
Summary: At least I tried to like it...
Review: To me this book is like modern art. Many think it's an amazing piece of work, it is very different from everything else, and I don't like it at all.

Why I didn't like this book is after the beginning it gets extremely boring. The detail is overwhelming. The language is exausting. I'm constantly asking my self 'erm... why is Whatshisname, son of Whatshisnamewithslightchange harkithing to thy for someith reasonith'? It just seems to prattle on and on about one thing over and over again. Have you ever read a book and just became so bored with it you kept on reading but weren't paying attention to what you were reading? I had to keep going back to read over pages that I had just read over (and no I don't have ADD or ADHD).

And why I gave it 2 stars and not 1 is because, HOLY CRAP, this is the most detailed book I have ever read, seen, or heard of. Just the fact that anyone could come up with this highly detailed (boring, repetitive, confusing) story is something that deserves 2 stars.

I know I'm going to get a whole bunch of angry LotR fans ambush me with a bombardment of 'not helpful' votes, but oh well...

Recomended books:
Harry Potter series
Da Vinci Code
Angels and Demons
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes