Scan barcode
A review by rikuson1
The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
I liked it π
-β β β β¬β- (3.25/5.00)
My Grading Score = 65% (C+)
The Lord of the Rings, Book 2 aka The Two Towers I feel like will go down as a love-hate entry for me. This entry is coming off of The Fellowship of the Ring, which had an okay enough cliffhanger to want to hop into The Two Towers sooner rather than later. But when I get to The Two Towers, it starts off by killing a character who didn't get much shine for in my opinion have me care about when they passed and I also felt this death would have at least been more impactful to me at the end of the Fellowship of the Ring instead of at the beginning of The Two Towers. The impact of their passing I felt nothing and honestly was debating if this could even be considered a waste if I didn't care about them, to begin with.
They split into groups
Nonetheless, The Two Towers' first half (which is known as book 3) makes it known clear very early on that this entire book 3 will have no progression of the main character Frodo. Instead of going off of what the Fellowship of the Ring sort of set up in its ending is the fact that our overall party of one is now split into three different groups. One group with Merry and Pippin, the other group with Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn, and the last group with Frodo and Sam. At first, I didn't understand the reasoning behind this because of the fact that at the time of reading, I did not care for basically any of these characters outside of Frodo, Legolas, and to some degree Aragorn. So splitting them up into groups like this I thought initially was a shot in the foot (and to some degree I still think it was because I can't take away my feelings or enjoyment of how I felt as I went through this portion even if it was for the benefit looking back in hindsight to some degree.)
Book 3 (The first half of The Two Towers)
The reason I felt the split of these groups was decided was probably directly linked to some degree to one of my gripes when it came to The Hobbit. It was the fact that outside of Bilbo, Gandalf, and Thorin, I did not care for all of the many dwarves that accompanied them. I could not for the life of me tell you all of their names, I couldn't even remember half of them or even a quarter of them, this was an issue to me because they all meshed together and the overall cast came together far too fast and felt bloated and forgettable outside of the ones I mentioned. With there being at the time before this split we had Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and Boromir that's eight characters (and then there's Gandalf which would make nine but he currently wasn't present during the split so I'm not counting him but if I did we are pushing the two digits). And at the time before they split, only three of them I cared for really. It was going to fall into the same issue I had with the Hobbit if something wasn't done. The solution that seems JRRT came to was to split them up. I feel this was a risky decision. If done right then one would come out carrying about all the characters in the cast, but if not executed correctly (and correctly is subjective I know) it can only lead to the reader being annoyed and uninterested that they are following characters they do not care for even after spending alone time with them and the author failed to change their opinion on them. And for the most part, that's unfortunately where I landed. With Merry and Pippin being broken off into their own separate groups, I unfortunately still do not care for either of these two characters. Their journey was very boring and uninteresting to me. Both of these characters barely have characteristics about them that intrigue me to care. I think the biggest issue I had with their group is when they reached Treebeard in chapter 4 of Book 3 this is the most boring and longest chapter in the entire entry of Two Towers and it mostly consists of them in Treebeard's hands as he slowly (and not surely) talks about to them and himself was a whole lotta nothing interesting to any degree to me. I was the most bored. I've been with this entire series thus far in this chapter alone and the reason the "hate" part of the love-hate I mention earlier comes mostly from. The chapter before this wasn't all that interesting with them either but this really made me dislike this book, because I genuinely felt like my time was being wasted as this guy dragged on but I'm not going to drag on as Treebeard did, and end my complaining about it here.
*Minor Spoilers up ahead, skip this portion if you haven't read it yet*
The next group of that consisting of Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn wasn't great but it wasn't super boring, although it definitely still had its chunks of uninteresting and boring parts in it as well that I felt like it was wasting my time. These parts, unlike Treebeard, were so boring that I couldn't recall these parts in particular to you, just that they exist within portions of their part of the journey. I felt like I was just reading words until something interesting happened or the story progression genuinely continued because unfortunately (and this occurs throughout Book 3 more than Book 4 it felt but it's in there as well) JRRT is heavily depicting every single little detail about every single little thing (especially if it's a location and sometimes it's a location the characters aren't in for nearly the amount of time he took to explain how the location looked which felt like it sucked all the significance right out of the location and thus feeling like my time was once again wasted). I've gotten used to JRRT's unorthodox writing style, so it's not that. And he can elegantly explain how something looks. I'm not knocking any of that. I respect the craft. But the level of detail in explaining these locations brings the whole progression to a halt countless times and hurts my enjoyment from a pacing standpoint far harder than it had previously, I don't think I could ever get used to it when he goes off like this at this point. Although at least when it came to Gimli I somewhat cared for him more than I did before the split and this had more so to do with the friendship/friendly rivalry that was created between him and Legolas during their time during this part. It was enjoyable and well done to me and allowed me to see some good characterization for both him and more for Legolas. And then Gandalf eventually comes back even though it was in a very weird way because they tried to make it seem like he was Saruman but fell oddly flat like some sort of joke. His explanation of how he came back from the Balrog abyss was kind of wishy-washy and very cryptic to me. Hopefully, it's explained more in the future. Speaking of Saruman, the part where Gandalf and Saruman were arguing in front of his castle was another good part of this group portion. I think during that time, they combined the two groups. Merry and Pippin, who reunited with Legolas's group, felt kind of sloppy as well. It felt like JRRT didn't feel like spending any more time on Merry and Pippin as a separate group and gave up at the end having the combine with Legolas's group and then having Pippin explain in detail to Legolas's group the portion JRRT didn't feel like writing and showing us and decided to have Pippin tell us instead which was a very long a boring monologue by him.
So, to wrap up Book 3, has a very small amount of good moments. But the Merry and Pippin part and the slow uninteresting parts of Legolas's crew still left me feeling like this was the weakest portion of this entire series and is the biggest dent when it comes to my score on this overall entry which is The Two Towers.
Book 4 (The second half of The Two Towers)
**Minor Spoilers again**
This brings me to the portion of the Two Towers that saved the whole entry. And that is Book 4, the second half. Which to me currently is the strongest and most consistently interesting and engaging portion the entire series has showcased thus far. Up to Book 4 I actually genuinely thought and gave up hope that I was going to see Frodo's group for this entire entry and I was ready to give The Two Stars no more than two stars rounded up. But once I realized that all of Book 4 was dedicated to Frodo's group, I rejoiced, and rightfully so because it was very good. The main reason I feel it was very good was because of Gollum and Sam and not even Frodo that much. Gollum, in my opinion, is the most entertaining and unique character in this entire series. He was entertaining and made one of my favorite parts back in The Hobbit, and he does it once again here in Book 4. Even traveling with Gollum as a party member was entertaining in its entirety. His dynamic with Frodo and Sam was entertaining and interesting and also assisted in showcasing characterization aspects of them that assisted in getting me to know them even better. For Frodo, I was able to see a side that was willing to assert dominance when needed when it came to taming Gollum and demanding he leads them to their objective. And for Sam, it assisted him even more so because, before all of this, he and Pippin to me did not feel that different as characters. They felt like the same character, one that showcased nervousness and insecurity mostly all the time above any other characteristic. But Sam's dislike, annoyance, and disgust with Gollum showcased that Sam can have attitude and clap back when something really bothers him, something Pippin never showcased if I so recall Their traversal into the cave at the end also allowed Sam to shine even more with how he went up against the Spider Lady. This made him probably one of my favorite characters now because it showcased bravery within him something I did not think he was capable of showing, especially in a dangerous circumstance like that. Additionally, the ending to Book 4 gives Sam even more characterization and character development because it essentially temporarily makes him the protagonist to follow as he now has to save Frodo with the ring in his possession. Book 4 (the second half of The Tower Towers) saved this book for me. And unlike The Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring, where I thought the endings were either lackluster or alright, respectively. I thought this one ended the strongest with a great cliffhanger to what's to come.
Verdict
Although The Two Towers to me didn't hold onto the little momentum that The Fellowship of the Ring gave it going in and although I feel like the first half was mostly a drag to the point where I was about to rate this the lowest entry thus far, the second half was so strong to me that it brought it all the way up to right here I'd rate The Fellowship of the Ring. The first half is the weakest of the series to me, but the second half is the strongest, so that balances out in my head to where The Fellowship of the Ring is. I'd probably even choose this over it if you asked me which one.
I liked it
-β β β β¬β- (3.25/5.00)
My Grading Score = 65% (C+)
The Lord of the Rings, Book 2 aka The Two Towers I feel like will go down as a love-hate entry for me. This entry is coming off of The Fellowship of the Ring, which had an okay enough cliffhanger to want to hop into The Two Towers sooner rather than later. But when I get to The Two Towers, it starts off by killing a character who didn't get much shine for in my opinion have me care about when they passed and I also felt this death would have at least been more impactful to me at the end of the Fellowship of the Ring instead of at the beginning of The Two Towers. The impact of their passing I felt nothing and honestly was debating if this could even be considered a waste if I didn't care about them, to begin with.
They split into groups
Nonetheless, The Two Towers' first half (which is known as book 3) makes it known clear very early on that this entire book 3 will have no progression of the main character Frodo. Instead of going off of what the Fellowship of the Ring sort of set up in its ending is the fact that our overall party of one is now split into three different groups. One group with Merry and Pippin, the other group with Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn, and the last group with Frodo and Sam. At first, I didn't understand the reasoning behind this because of the fact that at the time of reading, I did not care for basically any of these characters outside of Frodo, Legolas, and to some degree Aragorn. So splitting them up into groups like this I thought initially was a shot in the foot (and to some degree I still think it was because I can't take away my feelings or enjoyment of how I felt as I went through this portion even if it was for the benefit looking back in hindsight to some degree.)
Book 3 (The first half of The Two Towers)
The reason I felt the split of these groups was decided was probably directly linked to some degree to one of my gripes when it came to The Hobbit. It was the fact that outside of Bilbo, Gandalf, and Thorin, I did not care for all of the many dwarves that accompanied them. I could not for the life of me tell you all of their names, I couldn't even remember half of them or even a quarter of them, this was an issue to me because they all meshed together and the overall cast came together far too fast and felt bloated and forgettable outside of the ones I mentioned. With there being at the time before this split we had Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and Boromir that's eight characters (and then there's Gandalf which would make nine but he currently wasn't present during the split so I'm not counting him but if I did we are pushing the two digits). And at the time before they split, only three of them I cared for really. It was going to fall into the same issue I had with the Hobbit if something wasn't done. The solution that seems JRRT came to was to split them up. I feel this was a risky decision. If done right then one would come out carrying about all the characters in the cast, but if not executed correctly (and correctly is subjective I know) it can only lead to the reader being annoyed and uninterested that they are following characters they do not care for even after spending alone time with them and the author failed to change their opinion on them. And for the most part, that's unfortunately where I landed. With Merry and Pippin being broken off into their own separate groups, I unfortunately still do not care for either of these two characters. Their journey was very boring and uninteresting to me. Both of these characters barely have characteristics about them that intrigue me to care. I think the biggest issue I had with their group is when they reached Treebeard in chapter 4 of Book 3 this is the most boring and longest chapter in the entire entry of Two Towers and it mostly consists of them in Treebeard's hands as he slowly (and not surely) talks about to them and himself was a whole lotta nothing interesting to any degree to me. I was the most bored. I've been with this entire series thus far in this chapter alone and the reason the "hate" part of the love-hate I mention earlier comes mostly from. The chapter before this wasn't all that interesting with them either but this really made me dislike this book, because I genuinely felt like my time was being wasted as this guy dragged on but I'm not going to drag on as Treebeard did, and end my complaining about it here.
*Minor Spoilers up ahead, skip this portion if you haven't read it yet*
The next group of that consisting of Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn wasn't great but it wasn't super boring, although it definitely still had its chunks of uninteresting and boring parts in it as well that I felt like it was wasting my time. These parts, unlike Treebeard, were so boring that I couldn't recall these parts in particular to you, just that they exist within portions of their part of the journey. I felt like I was just reading words until something interesting happened or the story progression genuinely continued because unfortunately (and this occurs throughout Book 3 more than Book 4 it felt but it's in there as well) JRRT is heavily depicting every single little detail about every single little thing (especially if it's a location and sometimes it's a location the characters aren't in for nearly the amount of time he took to explain how the location looked which felt like it sucked all the significance right out of the location and thus feeling like my time was once again wasted). I've gotten used to JRRT's unorthodox writing style, so it's not that. And he can elegantly explain how something looks. I'm not knocking any of that. I respect the craft. But the level of detail in explaining these locations brings the whole progression to a halt countless times and hurts my enjoyment from a pacing standpoint far harder than it had previously, I don't think I could ever get used to it when he goes off like this at this point. Although at least when it came to Gimli I somewhat cared for him more than I did before the split and this had more so to do with the friendship/friendly rivalry that was created between him and Legolas during their time during this part. It was enjoyable and well done to me and allowed me to see some good characterization for both him and more for Legolas. And then Gandalf eventually comes back even though it was in a very weird way because they tried to make it seem like he was Saruman but fell oddly flat like some sort of joke. His explanation of how he came back from the Balrog abyss was kind of wishy-washy and very cryptic to me. Hopefully, it's explained more in the future. Speaking of Saruman, the part where Gandalf and Saruman were arguing in front of his castle was another good part of this group portion. I think during that time, they combined the two groups. Merry and Pippin, who reunited with Legolas's group, felt kind of sloppy as well. It felt like JRRT didn't feel like spending any more time on Merry and Pippin as a separate group and gave up at the end having the combine with Legolas's group and then having Pippin explain in detail to Legolas's group the portion JRRT didn't feel like writing and showing us and decided to have Pippin tell us instead which was a very long a boring monologue by him.
So, to wrap up Book 3, has a very small amount of good moments. But the Merry and Pippin part and the slow uninteresting parts of Legolas's crew still left me feeling like this was the weakest portion of this entire series and is the biggest dent when it comes to my score on this overall entry which is The Two Towers.
Book 4 (The second half of The Two Towers)
**Minor Spoilers again**
This brings me to the portion of the Two Towers that saved the whole entry. And that is Book 4, the second half. Which to me currently is the strongest and most consistently interesting and engaging portion the entire series has showcased thus far. Up to Book 4 I actually genuinely thought and gave up hope that I was going to see Frodo's group for this entire entry and I was ready to give The Two Stars no more than two stars rounded up. But once I realized that all of Book 4 was dedicated to Frodo's group, I rejoiced, and rightfully so because it was very good. The main reason I feel it was very good was because of Gollum and Sam and not even Frodo that much. Gollum, in my opinion, is the most entertaining and unique character in this entire series. He was entertaining and made one of my favorite parts back in The Hobbit, and he does it once again here in Book 4. Even traveling with Gollum as a party member was entertaining in its entirety. His dynamic with Frodo and Sam was entertaining and interesting and also assisted in showcasing characterization aspects of them that assisted in getting me to know them even better. For Frodo, I was able to see a side that was willing to assert dominance when needed when it came to taming Gollum and demanding he leads them to their objective. And for Sam, it assisted him even more so because, before all of this, he and Pippin to me did not feel that different as characters. They felt like the same character, one that showcased nervousness and insecurity mostly all the time above any other characteristic. But Sam's dislike, annoyance, and disgust with Gollum showcased that Sam can have attitude and clap back when something really bothers him, something Pippin never showcased if I so recall Their traversal into the cave at the end also allowed Sam to shine even more with how he went up against the Spider Lady. This made him probably one of my favorite characters now because it showcased bravery within him something I did not think he was capable of showing, especially in a dangerous circumstance like that. Additionally, the ending to Book 4 gives Sam even more characterization and character development because it essentially temporarily makes him the protagonist to follow as he now has to save Frodo with the ring in his possession. Book 4 (the second half of The Tower Towers) saved this book for me. And unlike The Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring, where I thought the endings were either lackluster or alright, respectively. I thought this one ended the strongest with a great cliffhanger to what's to come.
Verdict
Although The Two Towers to me didn't hold onto the little momentum that The Fellowship of the Ring gave it going in and although I feel like the first half was mostly a drag to the point where I was about to rate this the lowest entry thus far, the second half was so strong to me that it brought it all the way up to right here I'd rate The Fellowship of the Ring. The first half is the weakest of the series to me, but the second half is the strongest, so that balances out in my head to where The Fellowship of the Ring is. I'd probably even choose this over it if you asked me which one.
I liked it