The Fellowship Of The Ring (LOTR #1) by J.R.R. Tolkien

Book Review Nov 15, 2022

My review

4/5 stars ⭐️️️️️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I've loved Lord of the Rings since I was a teenager and I tackled the books as a teenager and watching the awesomeness that was the films. The books were amazing, and (as expected) added a whole other dimension to an already vivid and brilliant world. It's always been on my to-do list to come back and read them again as an adult.

I found out that Andy Serkis has narrated the series on Audible, so obviously I headed straight there to use one of my valuable credits on the experience. And what an experience it was! As expected, Andy Serkis narrating this story was more like a stage performance than an audiobook reader. He put on voices for each of the characters, adding depth and dimensionality to the reading; my favourite was by far and away his Tom Bombadil voice.

As I remembered from having read the book the first time around, the descriptive language used throughout the story is unlike anything else I've ever read. The world creation is second-to-none and is complete, vivid and incredibly detailed. This time round, I was able to add very visual faces to each of the characters, as I could envisage the actors from the films that I hadn't seen the first time I read the book. I still can't decide if that's a good thing or not - it helped make the second read feel easier, but I think it might have stifled my imagination somewhat.

Alongside that, I forgot just how much of a slow burner the first book in the series is. I struggled to push through the first few hours of the narration, as it's all world-building and scene-setting and details about each of the species. What we all know to be the plot of The Fellowship Of The Ring only actually really happens in the second half of the book, and that's harder to get through in an audiobook format.

It will always be a classic, I will always love it, but it didn't quite hit the heights that I expected it to in my memory. Maybe the second book will be easier because it's more action-based.

Book blurb

In a sleepy village in the Shire, a young hobbit is entrusted with an immense task. He must make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ruling Ring of Power – the only thing that prevents the Dark Lord Sauron’s evil dominion.

Thus begins J. R. R. Tolkien’s classic tale of adventure, which continues in The Two Towers and The Return of the King.