3 1/2 stars, probably. It definitely helps to be familiar with LOTR before reading this book. It was a bit abrupt at times and I'm not sure how clear things would be to someone who hadn't read LOTR. I was very impressed by how close it followed the "real" LOTR book, or perhaps how close the film followed the book since this is based on the animated movie. Parts of it were nearly direct quotes of Tolkien which definitely helped it to have a very genuine Tolkien feel.
A final bit of warning - do not expect a resolved ending! The book stops nearly at the end of Two Towers, as does the movie, I believe.
This is a companion book to Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version of Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings". It covers the first two books of the trilogy. This book consists of a brief synopsis of the story plus over 100 illustrations taken directly from the film. While the artwork in the book was okay, it didn't capture the dynamism of the film. The text was also poorly edited with several misspellings. Overall an interesting work, but I am glad it was loaned to me, I wouldn't have spent money on it despite being the huge fan of LOTR that I am.
for some reason the comments here are for a completely unrelated lord of the rings book. it is a catholic devotional book about the new testament, i like it a lot.
Very cool find in a small-town New Brunswick book store! Honestly a super solid condensation/adaptation of the first couple of books. Now I might check out the film!