Return of the King - My Bookwyrm instance

Paperback, 544 pages

English language

Published Aug. 13, 2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

ISBN:: 978-0-358-38025-2
OCLC Number:: 1288027175

(1 review)

One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

As the shadow of Mordor grows across the land, the Companions of the Ring have become involved in separate adventures. Aragorn, revealed as the hidden heir of the ancient kings of the West, has joined with the Riders of Rohan against the forces of Isengard and takes part in the desperate victory of the Hornburg. Merry and Pippin, captured by Orcs, escape into Fangorn Forest and there encounter the Ents. Gandalf has miraculously returned and defeated the evil wizard Saruman. Sam has left his master for dead after a battle with the giant spider Shelob; but Frodo is still alive—now in the foul hands of the Orcs. And all the while the armies of the Dark Lord are massing as the One Ring draws ever nearer to …

One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

As the shadow of Mordor grows across the land, the Companions of the Ring have become involved in separate adventures. Aragorn, revealed as the hidden heir of the ancient kings of the West, has joined with the Riders of Rohan against the forces of Isengard and takes part in the desperate victory of the Hornburg. Merry and Pippin, captured by Orcs, escape into Fangorn Forest and there encounter the Ents. Gandalf has miraculously returned and defeated the evil wizard Saruman. Sam has left his master for dead after a battle with the giant spider Shelob; but Frodo is still alive—now in the foul hands of the Orcs. And all the while the armies of the Dark Lord are massing as the One Ring draws ever nearer to the Cracks of Doom.

112 editions

NowWeAreAllTom reviewed The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien

Review of Return of the King

4 stars

(This is not so much a review of Return of the King, more of a review of LotR as a whole and of the andy serkis audiobooks)

I am very glad to revisit these! I have to say though, among my recent forays into to Tolkien's work, I think I rank LotR lower than The Silmarillion and The Hobbit. Generally I think my biggest problem with LotR is that most of the stuff in Rohan and Gondor is not that interesting to me, which means books 3 and 5 are kind of a slog. In general when we are reading about characters directly connected to the ring, like Frodo, Sam, Bilbo, and Gollum, that's when the book is at its best.

As for Serkis's reading, it's fantastic, for the most part. I do think his reading of Gollum, a full-on recreation of his voice from the film, fits a little …

(This is not so much a review of Return of the King, more of a review of LotR as a whole and of the andy serkis audiobooks)

I am very glad to revisit these! I have to say though, among my recent forays into to Tolkien's work, I think I rank LotR lower than The Silmarillion and The Hobbit. Generally I think my biggest problem with LotR is that most of the stuff in Rohan and Gondor is not that interesting to me, which means books 3 and 5 are kind of a slog. In general when we are reading about characters directly connected to the ring, like Frodo, Sam, Bilbo, and Gollum, that's when the book is at its best.

As for Serkis's reading, it's fantastic, for the most part. I do think his reading of Gollum, a full-on recreation of his voice from the film, fits a little weirdly into the tone and style of the novel, but I mean it's a great performance on its own merits. Also I feel like any time we get lines from "monstrous" characters like the nazgûl, orcs, uruks, the mouth of sauron, etc, I feel like he makes big swings at monster voices that don't feel quite right for the text. But that's relatively rare. I am particularly fond of his singing throughout the book. I'd forgotten how much singing there is in LotR, probably because it's mostly eliminated from the films and reading songs on the page never really does much for me, so the songs never made much of an impact on me. But Serkis really brings them to life. He is not a virtuoso singer which is all the better, it makes the songs feel characterful and part of the world.

Overall, LotR is good and the Serkis audiobook is a great way to revisit it!