Title: The Return of the King
Author: J. R. R. Tolkien
Pages: 340
Finished: September 29, 2019
First Sentence: Pippin looked out from the shelter of Gandalf's cloak.
Summary: The war of the Ring culminates in numerous battles while Frodo and Sam bumble their way through Mordor to destroy The Ring. Then they travel the long way back to the Shire where things aren't all right.
Thoughts: I want to like it. I really really do... but... Gah! The first part of the book is all the battle prep. Our fellowship is torn more asunder than it already is. Then there's the battle. Another long, forever battle. Then we move through the second part of the book where Tolkien makes sure we really see just how hopeless Frodo and Sam's journey is as they trudge through Mordor for days and days and days with little food or water. Then suddenly everything is good and we get to see exactly what everyone is doing at the moment The Ring is destroyed in their own chapters. Then comes the long march home.
Seriously. People complain about how the movie had all those fake endings. Clearly they haven't read the book. It just keeps going and going. Oh this seems like a good stopping point! Oh... nope. Now we have to part with these people. Oh good, here's a good stopping point. Nope, time to go to Rivendell. Oh here's a good point... By the time they got to the Scouring of the Shire, I was just done.
At least the Grey Havens was done well. I cried. I was moved. I was happy for them...
BUT THEN I HAD TO KEEP GOING!
Because my journey didn't end there. Nope, I still had 30 pages to bounce around between the Appendices, Unfinished Tales, Silmarillion, and Fellowship. Yes. Fellowship. The entire thing ended with a bit of dumb exposition at the end of the prologue in Fellowship.
My thoughts on the core books (Hobbit plus Lord of the Rings.) Honestly? I like Fellowship, but the rest... I just don't care about. In Fellowship you really see how much everyone cares for each other. The journey is fun even as it's dark. There's respite. Things haven't gotten dark yet. While you still see how much everyone cares for each other in the latter two books, they just don't have that magic. Instead they have endless battle scenes. I don't like detailed battle scenes. And by Return of the King, the book just overstays its welcome. I felt that way with Hobbit too. Yay! They took back the mountain and the Dragon's dead... oh wait... there's a whole 'nother part with all these armies?
My thoughts on the auxiliary books. Hm. This is a bit tricky. I liked the stories when I was able to read longer parts of them. It was nice to have context for things. Especially Numenor and the Istari. But many times, these stories were broken up into paragraphs here or between multiple books. So we'd learn a bit about the Istari and then pop into LOTR for a good long while, then pop back to the Istari for another paragraph or two.
My thoughts on the format of the actual chronological order reading. As I said before, I wasn't a big fan of jumping between books. Here's the thing. I'll probably read these books in another 10 years. They're not bad. More inspiring than other books I'm reading. Just not my favorites. But if I do so again, I won't be following this format. I'd rather have full stories at a time. It'll mean more repetition and things may not be chronological, but I'm okay with that.
The thing I enjoyed most while reading through this was seeing how much Gary Gyrax was inspired by Tolkien when he devised Dungeons & Dragons. I started playing D&D in high school, and I always played a ranger because of Aragorn. But while reading the book, Aragorn would do something and I'd be like, "Oh, that's this spell or that feat or...." And same with the other characters. You can read the books and then read the race and class system in the Players Handbook and basically name LOTR characters.
If you want to follow this path yourself, the chronology can be found here: Chronological Tolkien
Seriously. People complain about how the movie had all those fake endings. Clearly they haven't read the book. It just keeps going and going. Oh this seems like a good stopping point! Oh... nope. Now we have to part with these people. Oh good, here's a good stopping point. Nope, time to go to Rivendell. Oh here's a good point... By the time they got to the Scouring of the Shire, I was just done.
At least the Grey Havens was done well. I cried. I was moved. I was happy for them...
BUT THEN I HAD TO KEEP GOING!
Because my journey didn't end there. Nope, I still had 30 pages to bounce around between the Appendices, Unfinished Tales, Silmarillion, and Fellowship. Yes. Fellowship. The entire thing ended with a bit of dumb exposition at the end of the prologue in Fellowship.
My thoughts on the core books (Hobbit plus Lord of the Rings.) Honestly? I like Fellowship, but the rest... I just don't care about. In Fellowship you really see how much everyone cares for each other. The journey is fun even as it's dark. There's respite. Things haven't gotten dark yet. While you still see how much everyone cares for each other in the latter two books, they just don't have that magic. Instead they have endless battle scenes. I don't like detailed battle scenes. And by Return of the King, the book just overstays its welcome. I felt that way with Hobbit too. Yay! They took back the mountain and the Dragon's dead... oh wait... there's a whole 'nother part with all these armies?
My thoughts on the auxiliary books. Hm. This is a bit tricky. I liked the stories when I was able to read longer parts of them. It was nice to have context for things. Especially Numenor and the Istari. But many times, these stories were broken up into paragraphs here or between multiple books. So we'd learn a bit about the Istari and then pop into LOTR for a good long while, then pop back to the Istari for another paragraph or two.
My thoughts on the format of the actual chronological order reading. As I said before, I wasn't a big fan of jumping between books. Here's the thing. I'll probably read these books in another 10 years. They're not bad. More inspiring than other books I'm reading. Just not my favorites. But if I do so again, I won't be following this format. I'd rather have full stories at a time. It'll mean more repetition and things may not be chronological, but I'm okay with that.
The thing I enjoyed most while reading through this was seeing how much Gary Gyrax was inspired by Tolkien when he devised Dungeons & Dragons. I started playing D&D in high school, and I always played a ranger because of Aragorn. But while reading the book, Aragorn would do something and I'd be like, "Oh, that's this spell or that feat or...." And same with the other characters. You can read the books and then read the race and class system in the Players Handbook and basically name LOTR characters.
If you want to follow this path yourself, the chronology can be found here: Chronological Tolkien
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