Reviews

The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien

emmacmpbell's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring relaxing medium-paced

4.5

Sam is so gay for Frodo it makes me cry whenever they talk 
Such a good fucking book, less songs this time and more Aragorn gimli and Legolas 

wardenzo's review against another edition

5.0

The Fellowship of the Ring heeft bijna twee miljoen reviews op deze website, terwijl dit deel, The Two Towers, slechts een half miljoen recensies kent. Onterecht! In mijn optiek is dit deel vele malen beter dan haar voorganger. Karakters maken ontwikkelingen door, en, in tegenstelling tot het vorige boek, wordt veel informatie in natuurlijk dialoog vrijgegeven. Het las hierdoor beter weg. Dialoog was ook verrassender: niet alleen was het ludieker, maar ook werd er eindelijk gezellig een beetje gemixt tussen de verschillende volken. Daarnaast waren de verhaallijnen ook beter neergezet.

Spoiler

Het enige wat een beetje tegenzat was de vreemde feodale machtsrelatie tussen Sam en Frodo, maar tegen het einde van het boek werd dit minder en ontwikkelde er een steeds aangenamere relatie tussen de mannen. Sam, die in dit boek een stuk simpeler van aard is dan in de films, grijpt tegen het eind van het boek ook de kans om zich te bewijzen als een ware held van het verhaal.

Lekker lezen dus!

katerinatroyanovich's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

fizz619's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

dora_iwishiknew's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

sscullyy's review against another edition

3.0

A lot of people feel that the two towers is the slowest of the Lord of the rings trilogy, and therefore a lot of peoples least favorite. While I did feel that some of this book was very slow, but there was also so much that happened and I couldn’t put this book down in some parts. It starts right where the fellowship of the ring left off, with the remainder of the fellowship (sans Frodo and Sam). Boromir is dead, and Merry and Pippin have been taken by the orcs. The remainder of the fellowship are racing to save the hobbits from the orcs and a desperate hope that they are still alive. They end up assisting the riders of Rohan against Saruman’s host, who has sent to destroy them. Meanwhile, Merry and Pippin are indeed alive and get involved with the Ent raid of Isengard, which is much easier without a single orc there to defend it. Aragorn and Co. successfully destroy Saruman’s host, and Saruman himself is defeated at Isengard. Frodo and Sam (domesticate?) Gollum, and use him as a guide through Mordor. But it becomes very obvious to Sam that Gollum is once again under the spell of the ring, and is fighting with his own conscience about if he should be true to Frodo, who has been kind to him, or if he should take the ring for himself, which he deeply desires. Ultimately, Gollum leads them to Shelob, the wicked spider queen. They fight with Shelob and Frodo is struck. Sam, believing him dead, tries to take the ring to the Cracks of Doom to finish the job, but turns around when he sees that photos body has been overtaken by orcs. The story ends with Sam learning that Frodo is alive!

The world building and storytelling is once again masterful. Parts of this book were a little slow, which is why I removed a star from my rating, but the story is insane and I cannot wait to see where this ends!

posydee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

st_urmer's review against another edition

5.0

I am enjoying the trilogy even more than when I read it in college. And so much fun to read it to the kids. There are a lot of details that I had forgotten and it even adds to my enjoyment of the films. Looking forward to reading Return of the King next.

mudder17's review against another edition

4.0

Okay, I think I've figure it out. I greatly appreciate these books. But I don't love them. Even with Serkin's amazing narration and following along with it, I just had a hard time getting into it. Okay, to be fair, I was reading a few books at time. But other books just kept grabbing my attention more than this one. Maybe I need to rewatch the movies and truly immerse myself in this world. I'm still planning on reading the third book, but I may wait until things are not quite so frantic. As I recall, I read both of the first books long ago (like at least 2 decades ago) and I remember getting into the first two books, but then I hit a wall when I started the third book. I just couldn't get through the battles. So we shall see. I would probably give this book 3.5 stars based purely on my attention span for it, but round up because I do appreciate all that went into it, and Serkin was an awesome narrator. I mean, he actually sings! And with a good voice! So there we have it. I've finally made it through book 2 of this trilogy.

giuliae's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5