Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Apr 08, 2011

mark rated it:

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

a rousing climax to the most ravishing love story of the modern age. tempestuous, tormented Frodo at long last learns to accept the love of his lifemate - the loyal and submissive Samwell Gamgee, bottom-extraordinaire. this is truly a tale of love's labour hard-won, and at such a cost! but love conquers all in the end, and even bitter, militantly hetero villain Sauron cannot stand in the heart's path for too long. in this third book of the torrid trilogy, Frodo's love-hate r More...

19 comments like (38 people liked it)

Jun 30, 2011

Stephen rated it:

***NEW LAWSUIT UPDATE BELOW (6-30-11)...Lone reviewer continues fight with corporate ~~ASSCLOWNS~~ powers in epic 1st Amendment battle royale.***

4.0 stars. FULL REVIEW (hopefully) to follow after resolution of the lawsuit* filed against this reviewer in the District Court of Narnia by, among others: 20th Century ~~Fucks~~ Fox, Lucasfilms, the Tolkien Estate and Robert Van Winkle (aka Vanilla ~~Asshat~~Ice) in order to prevent the release of an allegedly offensive ~~but in reality just knee-slappin~~ More...

15 comments like (36 people liked it)

Aug 20, 2010

Caris rated it:

How I Spent My Summer Vacation
by: Caris “The O’Malley” O’Malley

This summer was really good. I got to do a lot of neat things. The best part of the whole summer was that I got to spend it with my new best friend Johnny. Johnny is my friend because he’s smart and he tells good stories and his mustash tickles. The stories he tells are filled with creatures and adventures, so they’re really good.

Johnny is really serious about his stories. Sometimes he gets really detail More...

20 comments like (21 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Roly rated it:

I’m sure glad Stevie didn’t bother to read this one:
Sam and Frodo wake up in some swamp/heath/mountain pass
Frodo: We’re lost, oh its awful, I’m hungry, we only have 3 pieces of elfin bread left
Sam: Don’t worry Frodo I’m here for you, you have the bread
Sam and Frodo walk around a bit looking dirty and lost and miserable
Frodo: oh the ring, it’s so heavy, how will I cope?
Golem: Myyy presssciousss [and all that nonsense]
Sam: Don’t worry you have a nice sleep More...

22 comments like (9 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Todd rated it:

To me, the whole point of reading the first two books of LOTR is to get to this one, because this is the truly masterful part of the story.

One thing I will say is that I really admire how the main heroes of the story, Frodo and Sam, are quite inconsequential in the classic tradition of heroes. They can't fight, they can't cast spells, they can't really do anything except persevere through extreme trial, all so that they can do what they promised to do, to do the right thing. Sam, i More...

2 comments like (11 people liked it)

Aug 18, 2007

Tatiana rated it:

The more times I read The Lord of the Rings, the more I love it, and the more important it is for me. I first discovered it in college, starting with The Hobbit (which is my recommended starting point). I deeply love Tolkien, this world, this universe, the legends, the histories, the people, and the story. The Greeks said that everything was in Homer. If you studied Homer, all virtue and understanding, everything you needed to know was in there. I feel the same way about the Lord of the Rin More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Sep 19, 2008

Jon rated it:

I've read and re-read The Lord of the Rings so many times. Why? Because it sings to my soul and sends it soaring.

This last volume, or last few books, of the epic tale of Middle Earth, has always been my favorite.

And it's the relationships and the struggles that appeal most - Frodo and Sam, Boromir and his father, Aragorn and Gandalf, Legolas and Gimli.

At the end of all things, even a perpetually optimistic Hobbit can be tempted, can fall, just like all More...

5 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2011

Joe rated it:

Having just re-experience The Lord of the Rings on audio book, I am struck again by how truly awesome these books are. Tolkien's fantasy has been copied endlessly yet remains so very unique.

Reading (hearing) it again, it is difficult not to compare it to the Peter Jackson films. I think Peter Jackson is to be commended for taking great pains to include much of the textual dialogue and faithfully attempting to recraft the books' scenes as much and whenever possible. I was surprised More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 30, 2011

Greg of A2 rated it:

And so it ends. What Tolkien did so well in the final book was to provide closure to the story. The fellowship is allowed to part ways in a fine and loving fashion. Most writers never go to these lengths to conclude a story (probably an additional 40 pages after the destruction of the ring and the completion of the quest). And just when you think the story had come to a quiet end, the return to the Shire is filled with drama. And here, Tolkien gives the reader a chance to observe the new found c More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 29, 2011

Keely rated it:

Writers who inspire a genre are usually misunderstood. Tolkien's reasons for writing were completely unlike those of his followers. He didn't have an audience, a genre, and scores of contemporaries. There was a tradition of high adventure fairy tales, as represented by Eddison, Dunsany, Morris, MacDonald, Haggard, and Kipling, but this was only part of what inspired Tolkien.

His writing was chiefly influenced by his familiarity with the mythological traditions of the Norse and Welsh c More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 07, 2011

Emma rated it:

UPDATE 9/7: Ugh.

After having this on my 'currently reading' shelf for the past three months, I'm just gonna mark it as read and be done with it.

Technically, I finished it. The problem is that I didn't actually start it. I read the stuff about Frodo and Sam, but skipped over the part about Aragorn at the beginning.

To be fair, I didn't even like this movie. If I had, I would have read the book. But the movie was too long, and more muddled than the first two. I More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 04, 2009

Nikki rated it:

There: I've finally finished my reread of The Lord of the Rings. I'm trying to remember when I last reread it. Probably three years ago, maybe four, because I went through a long period where I was sure it would have lost its magic, and I mostly just remembered the accusations of how slow it was, how boring, how long it took to get anything done. That was true, as far as it matters: Tolkien is wordy, but I like the way he writes. I wasn't wrong in remembering that it tasted nice to me, with the More...

6 comments like (6 people liked it)

Mar 31, 2008

Ryan rated it:

I was lucky enough to have finished most of the lord of the rings series before the movies came out, so i got to really understand the testement of how much better a book usually is than it's movie. While the Lord of the Rings Trilogy remains to be my favorite trilogy on two fronts, both movies and books, i am still finding that this trilogy is something that must be read several times in order to begin grasping some of the full concepts expressed within. J.R.R. tolkein was actually friends with More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 28, 2008

Kristin rated it:

This was technically a re-read, but since it was twenty years ago that I read it the first time I decided I could review it here. When the LotR trilogy came out in the theaters, I was reading the books after watching the theatrical release. Except for RotK. I either wasn't in the mood to read it or I just bounced off of it. After our trip to Vegas, we watched RotK again, and I decided that I was at last ready to give the book another attempt.

Do I need to summarize RotK? I think More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 12, 2007

Bryce rated it:

I consider the Lord of the Rings trilogy the best fantasy, and perhaps the best fiction, ever written. Middle Earth is a beautiful, rich, complete land to which Narnia pales by comparison (don't get me wrong, I very much like Narnia, too).

The conclusion of the quest, Frodo and Sam claw their way to the steps of Mount Doom, looking up at Barad-dur, Sauron's throne. Meanwhile, the rest of the broken Fellowship desperately fight to slow the spread of Sauron's darkness. The Hammer of More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 16, 2008

Jenifer rated it:

I am including the ratings and reviews of ;
Eliza (16) 5 stars. She especially liked the ending. The satisfying tying up of all the ends. She loved that the story came full circle and ended in the Shire.
Amelia (13) 4 1/2 stars. She had to take away half a point for the long, boringish parts.
Max (10) 2 stars. He liked the beginning because it was the beginning and that was fun. He liked the ending because it was over. He had a hard time with all the boringness in between.

T More...

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Lisbeth rated it:

In this one his style changes a little--and not for the better, but so what?

In retrospect, another shortcoming is the scarcity of female characters. And isn't it just too bad that Eowyn has to learn the error of her ambitious ways? And another thing, too, those swarthy Southrons who scatter willy-nilly without putting up much of a fight--does that strike anyone else as Eurocentric? Sigh.

Even so, I was one of those obsessive types who read all of the appendices, learned More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 11, 2011

Josi added it

So, I *finally* finished LOTR. Don't get me wrong, they're fantastic novels. But you can really tell that it's Tolkien's "baby"...there's too much backstory for my taste. You'll never find any plot holes, because Tolkiens comprehends his fictional world so well that everything blends seamlessly together. However, a lot of the time I found myself wondering why he had bothered putting certain parts in...like the multiple descriptions of feasts and forests. Or the ardous lists of hierarch More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 17, 2012

Joe rated it:

I thought I'd rated these books a long time ago. Alas!

What can I say that thousands of other nerds haven't commented upon? The uncanny descriptions of mountains and hills? Sam's underlying sexual confusion? (and probably Tolkien's) Everyone singing more than the cast of Glee?

The wonderful relationship between Gollum and the hobbits is something that stands out, and how it mirrors many Christian parables of charity to the "unclean", the undesirable. And being a stau More...

0 comments like

Jan 09, 2012

Brian rated it:

Recently on the radio I heard a Czech official say the following about Vaclav Havel being possessed of an inner strength that emerged when needed:

"You know, it reminds me a little of Gandalf from J.R.R. Tolkien. You know, to hobbits, he was just a fun little gadget-maker, so to speak, but you only realized how powerful he is when he actually met a demon from the ancient past. And this is exactly how Havel looked like."

It reminded me how much I loved the characte More...

0 comments like

Dec 26, 2011

Kassie rated it:

Same warning as the other reviews for Lord of the Rings. The review will not be particularly good because of my obsession with the series.

It took me for freaking ever to read this one, but I LOVED it. Totally my favorite of the series.

So this is the one that sealed my love for Merry and Pippin. My favorite line was when Merry wishes that he was big and strong like Eomer so that he could ride into Gondor and save Pippin singlehandedly. I pretty much died of fluff overload More...

0 comments like

Nov 22, 2011

Phillip rated it:

Lord of the rings the return of the king is the final installment to the Lord of the rings trilogy, This book was an amazing book written by J. R. R. Tolkien
and was extremely suspenseful and always captivated you, I liked this book and how the writer was able to accurately and strength fully able to write out memorable battle scenes where it was like watching a film.

This book is about the Fellowship dividing to conquer as Frodo and Sam, with the help and hindrance of Gollum, co More...

0 comments like

Nov 20, 2011

Nikki rated it:

It's very odd reading this book with the eye of a medievalist, with the eye of someone studying it. I always thought of Tolkien as so very original, in coming up with all his own languages and mythology, but that isn't quite true. He was a great synthesiser, bringing things together from older things and making them seem new, mixing in just enough of his own imagination... He was original, a trailblazer, but not in the way I thought he was. And he was smarter, and a greater scholar, than I ever More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 17, 2011

Steven rated it:

There's probably not too much I can say here that you didn't already know or think about for yourself--or read on one of the reviews for the other two books. These are inescapably linked to the Peter Jackson films, which I became more and more impressed with as I read these. The series ends as well here as it does in the films, and each ending suited each format. The destruction of the Shire worked well in the books but would've curtailed the films entirely. Frankly, there's a heightened fee More...

0 comments like

Oct 28, 2011

David rated it:

While not strictly related to the books, I must mention that earlier this year when I went to England one of my destinations was Oxford. While I Oxford I went and had a beer at Tolkien's pub, visited Tolkien's house (20 Northmoor Avenue, there is a plaque on the house that identifies it as his house) and paid a visit to his gravestone. Tolkien was a professor of English literature at Oxford and it shows in his writings. As mentioned previously, he borrowed as lot of ideas from the many books th More...

0 comments like

Aug 15, 2011

Peggy rated it:

So, I'm going to be honest. I started reading these books when I was in seventh grade when the movie came out. I had a gigantic crush on Elijah Wood and I bought the book because I wanted to stare at his face on the cover. Needless to say, I didn't read the books very closely (I did actually read them, but I don't remember much) and I'm kind of ashamed at my motives for buying and reading the books. Especially since I studied abroad in New Zealand primarily because of the LOTR phenomenon. Howeve More...

0 comments like

Aug 03, 2011

Dan rated it:

The Lord of the Rings story represents to me the epitome of an epic adventure saga. It's a traditional hero's journey, fraught with danger and adversity, friends and enemies, war and the noble quest to bring peace. I have never felt more a part of a world than Middle Earth during the Second War of The Ring. Also, in comparison to other adventure stories, especially those of this nature, the Lord of the Rings stands alone for me as feeling like the largest scale. Tolkien does a great job of d More...

0 comments like

Jun 24, 2011

Debbiegordon rated it:

I watched the movies before I read the books, because I was too young to understand the archaic Dutch and too inexperienced to read it in its original language. I loved and still love the movies fiercely, although the first one scared me a little at the time. They are my comfort blanket. They are what I turn to when I want to feel, when I want to experience something beautiful.
The world Tolkien created takes my breath away. It's so complete and well-thought out that I almost c More...

0 comments like

Jun 09, 2011

Jeruen rated it:

An edited version of this article was first published as Book Review: The Return of the King (Lord of the Rings Trilogy #3) by J. R. R. Tolkien on Blogcritics.org.

So, I finally finished reading the trilogy. I began with The Fellowship of the Ring, followed by The Two Towers. Now, about a decade after the movie-related hype, I finally read the whole three.

Should I put a synopsis here? Perhaps, just for completion’s sake. This is the third and final installment of The Lord of t More...

0 comments like

Jun 08, 2011

Mike rated it:

Ever since I was fourteen I’ve been reading Lord of the Rings, and I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve read it. At least thirty! But I haven’t lost track of how my response to the trilogy has evolved over the years. Sam has always been my favorite character, and in my youth he inspired me. Shortly into the quest he tells Frodo,” I seem to see ahead, in a kind of way. I know we are going to take a very long road, into darkness; but I know I can’t turn back. It isn’t to see Elves now, no More...

0 comments like