Title: The Two Towers
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
Series: The Lord of the Rings #2
Narrator: Andy Serkis
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 20 hours 47 minutes
Published: 2021, HarperCollins (originally published 1954)
My Grade: 5 out of 5

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

Frodo and his Companions of the Ring have been beset by danger during their quest to prevent the Ruling Ring from falling into the hands of the Dark Lord by destroying it in the Cracks of Doom. They have lost the wizard, Gandalf, in a battle in the Mines of Moria. And Boromir, seduced by the power of the Ring, tried to seize it by force. While Frodo and Sam made their escape, the rest of the company was attacked by Orcs. Now they continue the journey alone down the great River Anduin—alone, that is, save for the mysterious creeping figure that follows wherever they go.

MY REVIEW

The Two Towers is as good as The Fellowship of the Ring. The story goes on seamlessly and focuses mainly on Merry/Pippin and Legolas/Aragorn/Gimli in the “fourth” book and only on Frodo and Sam in the fifth. I like that it was so separated. It made it easier to follow along in the story instead of focusing on trying to figure out which character this chapter is following.

The writing, worldbuilding and general feeling of the bok is the same. It feels real with descriptions and dialogue. And I was surprised at the humor. Gimli’s and Legolas counting contest at Helm’s Deep was in the book. Merry and Pippin greeting the rest of the company after the battle of Isengard an Gimli’s funny responses. That surprised me a lot.

This is the second book of a trilogy, which makes it the transport story. And it definitely is. But not for the reasons I remembered from when I was 12. The Ent Moot is not what is dragging this story out. The Council of Elrond is. I think that was at least four hours of the whole book. I kind of wish I would have paid more attention though, because a lot of ancient history was told there. But in general, things are constantly happening, even if the might be a little flat. Or perhaps even is a better word? Andy Serkis is so very passionate when he is narrating and it’s super intense at the fight with Shelob, but it’s over so fast. The same with the battle at Helm’s Deep. It’s over in no time. These battle scenes seems like a neccessity for the story and not something extraordinary that is visually beautiful as it was portrayed in the movies.

And when it comes to comparing the movie with the book, which is impossible when reading the book 20 years after the successful movie came out, the scenes described in the book gives so much more background. It puts perspective unto scenes in the movie that I wasn’t aware of before. It is also scary how accurate and exact some scenes are. It’s almost ridiculous. I wonder what people thought when reading this before Peter Jackson came into the picture. One major difference though is Frodo’s acting towards Gollum. He is not being nice and understanding at all towards the creature and is not as naive as he is portrayed in the film.

It is a transport book, for sure, but still so excellently written and narrated. 5 out of 5 possible!