The Lord of The Rings Trilogy Review – Spoiler Free, As Always!
I’ve wanted to read The Lord Of The Rings books by J. R. R. Tolkien for years, but I always had excuses.
When I was younger it was because I was a huge Harry Potter fan – why would I need to read LOTR when I had Harry Potter? Meanwhile, my brother had read all of the LOTR novels and watched all the films, and even had all the figurines and play sets.
As I got older, it was honestly more because I was intimidated. There’s no denying that these novels are very intense and there’s a lot going on, so I was absolutely terrified of starting them. I always assumed they would be very hard to read and would take forever to get through. How very wrong I was.
I have read a lot of fantasy, for sure, but nothing too heavy. I tend to read a lot of lighter children’s and YA fantasy novels, so this trilogy was one of the first that I would say is more adult, but I found it very easy to get into!
I’m putting this in here first just in case you feel the way that I used to feel about this series. Honestly, it’s not that scary, I promise!
Let’s start with the first novel, The Fellowship Of The Ring. Wow! Talk about a grand opening. We are thrown straight in to the world of Middle Earth, where we meet all kinds of people and creatures and get to see their ways of living.
We’re mainly following a Hobbit named Frodo and his companions as they are sent on a long journey to destroy a ring of power that, in the hands of the Dark Lord Sauron, will bring death and destruction to all.
Everything is very tense and the urgency feels very real. This is a very strong start to the trilogy, with lots of world building and major character development.
Then we move onto the second novel, The Two Towers, which is actually my favourite of the three books in the series. This story is split into various perspectives as we follow different characters on their journeys and adventures, which drove me through the story very quickly.
I really enjoyed this! It felt like I could get through the book faster because I couldn’t wait to see what each group of characters would have to face next.
The only thing that I found slightly confusing was just how many new characters were introduced in such a short period of time – it was pretty hard to keep up. But that didn’t hinder my reading experience much and I grew used to this way of storytelling pretty quickly.
We get to see more of the darkness moving through Middle Earth and how it’s affecting the characters, as well as plenty of battles and tense moments involving the enemy.
The final book in the trilogy, The Return Of The King, is definitely the most intense and action-packed book. I’m personally not the biggest fan of action (films or books) but this worked for me.
I think because the characters are so well established and I really cared for them, I genuinely felt fear for them when the action scenes were taking place, which distracted me from the fact that I was reading about battles and armies and all things action-packed.
The final third of the book had me hooked the entire time. What a perfect conclusion! There are twists and turns and you really see the immersive world building and character building shining through as you read. It was very intense and had me biting my lip in fear for some of my favourite characters!
There’s also themes surrounding industrialisation vs the natural world. Sauron and his servants create war camps, destroy forests and lands, and create factories for weapons in lands that used to be sacred and natural.
This is, of course, portrayed as evil and dark and is removing elements of old magic from Middle Earth. I just thought that this was an interesting and important thing to be portrayed in the novels.
I have to say that J.R.R. Tolkien deserves all the praise that he gets for this trilogy. The world building is mind-blowing. The entire time I was reading these books I was in complete awe at the fact that someone could create a world as rich as Middle Earth.
There are whole other languages and species, kingdoms and cities and places… it’s just incredible. I can really appreciate how wonderfully written these novels are.
So overall, this is a 5? series for me
The characters, the plot, the world building, all of it just comes together to create a wonderful, fantastical and adventurous story that I didn’t want to put down.
If you want a relatively short series that’s pretty easy to read, transports you to a whole other world, and keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole way through, I highly recommend The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy!
If you’re interested in hearing more about my feelings surrounding this trilogy, and also what I thought about the books vs the films, my BookTube is linked on my profile, along with the sites where I purchase my new books from. Thank you!
