Thursday, November 12, 2020

Review of The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

This review was written by Eugene Kernes

Book can be found in:
Genre = Novel, Fantasy

Elaborate Description

Following the previous book, Frodo was captured by the orcs so it is now up to Sam to rescue him. After being saved, Frodo’s personality shows how much he has been influenced by the One Ring. Sam and Frodo needed to make a long journey to the mountain where the One Ring was forged, all the while eluding pursuers. Gollum was one of the pursuers. During their travels, the Sauron’s army began to mobilize and the Eye shifted focus to the Black Gate.

The army out of Minas Morgul, the one Frodo, Sam and Gollum saw in the previous book, was led by the captain of the Nazgul. This army made its way to Gondor itself. Gondor fell hopeless until the Riders of Rohan came. The Nazgul captain fell and this battle was one, but it was a pyric victory. The remaining forces were few and they decided that those able and willing would go to the Black Gate to draw Sauron’s attention away from the ring-bearer.

The story is very immersive. Seeing each event from various perspectives. This did have a problem as sometimes going back and forth in time caused confusion as to the timing of events. A the end of the book, at the end of the adventure, marked the end of the war of the rings. The author provides histories of the races and synopsis of events before the war of the rings.


Book Details

Edition ISBN:  0345339738
Pages to read:   470
Publication:     2003
1st Edition:      1955
Format:            Paperback

Ratings out of 5:
Readability    5
Content          1
Overall           4