Thursday, July 28, 2011

The Return of the King; Book 2

By J. R. R. Tolkien

Catholic-ometer: 4.5 of 5




Enjoyability: 4.5 of 5




The second "book" of the Return of the King chronicles Frodo and Sam as they complete their journey through Mordor, and bring the ring of power to Mount Doom, where Gollum attacks them again, just as the ring finishes corrupting Frodo.  Both Gollum and he ring fall into the fires, but Frodo and Sam are rescued by Gandalf and the Eagles, and Aragorn's forces finish mopping up the enemy once the ring is destroyed.

After that, there are several subplots involving Eowyn and some of the other minor characters.  Eowyn casts aside virtually all of her previous character development, and becomes "more of a woman," for Faramir, but I actually consider this a relatively minor fault in the writing, despite Eowyn's large impact on the story so far.  Arwen appears again, just in time to marry Aragorn, but barely gets two lines of dialogue in doing so.  I much prefer her depiction in the movie, but this isn't really a weakness in the book; she's just a very minor character here.

Finally, they all part ways, and before the main characters depart the land forever, there's a plot about a brief war in the shire, between a band of "ruffians," commanded by Saruman, and the shire hobbits he's been enslaving with what essentially amounts to socialism.

In my opinion, the final battle of the book was a bit anticlimactic for a final battle, but not a bad little plotline by itself, and even fairly amusing.  I was always somewhat disappointed that the major conflict is resolved a third of the way into this book, after which everything else seems like a step down.  Still, it never really upset me all that much.  I wasn't really bothered by any of the things I've just described.

The only thing about this book, and indeed, this book series that ever really angered me was the message, near the end, of good things passing away and the world moving on without them.  Many of the ideas and concepts contained in this book are friendly to the Catholic ear, but this is not.  Only evil things will come to an end.  Good things continue forever, and without a better understanding of the Gray Havens, and its relationship to Middle Earth, the message of these segments can come off as "if you've already done a lot to help people, just go off on a vacation overseas somewhere."  For good Christians, the fight doesn't end until you're dead, and even then, it doesn't really END end, it just takes a different form until the final judgment.  The ending of the Lord of the Rings always bothered me for this reason, ever since I was a child, and it does to this day.

Still, it's a good book overall, and a very compelling story of trial, danger and loss.  It was just as good as I remembered it being, and I hope you'll enjoy it too.

The Return of the King; Book 1

By J. R. R. Tolkien

Catholic-ometer: 5 of 5




Enjoyability: 4 of 5




This is the third book of the Lord of the Rings, and like the first two, is divided into two "books."  Spoilers for the next three paragraphs.

The first book chronicles how Pippin and Gandalf ride to Gondor, and Theoden of Rohan does the same with his army, responding to Gondor's call for aid.  Aragorn and his friends head for Gondor as well, but they take a different and more dangerous route; known as the Paths of the Dead.

Pippin becomes a guardsman of Gondor, and soon finds that Denethor; the steward of Gondor, has gone mad with despair, and ordered the execution of both his son Faramir and himself.  With the help of Gandalf, he moves to rescue Faramir from the mad steward.

Arriving in time for battle, King Theoden is slain, and his daughter Eowyn; disguised as a horseman, faces off against the Nazgul king; the second in command of Mordor.  Aragorn moves in with reinforcements, but even when they win the battle for Gondor's gates, they still have to make one last, suicidal attack against Mordor if they want to distract Sauron from the real prize; the ring of power.

The characters and meanings to be found within them are numerous and intriguing.  I could spend an hour discussing the meaning of Denethor's madness, Eowyn's motives, Aragorn's plans, Gimli's shame and the role of Gandalf in it all.  It's a beautiful story with a lot of very strong plot points.  However, for enjoyability, I can't give it a perfect score, and there are two reasons for this.

The first is that, as I've said, I'd rather be reading a story about fantastic things and strange beings.  This half of the book is largely concerned with the actions of men and armies, and the deployment of troops, which isn't as much my thing as the battle at Helm's Deep was.  This is a purely personal issue, however.

The real problem is that the book drops too many names, and uses them too often, not really assigning substantial characters to most of them.  Some characters, like Beregond; have interesting stories told about them, but just weren't considered important enough to be in the movie, while others, like Halbarad, Ghan-Buri-Ghan, Imrahil and about a dozen others are essentially names without any clear stories behind them, except to fill up space in lists of names of warriors who defended Gondor valliantly.  Certainly, real historical records might take this tack, but in fiction, it's acceptable, and expected, to stick to the story in question.  I felt that this weakened the narrative, rather than strengthening it.  These are the only reasons, in my mind, for taking issue with the first half of the book, however.  On the whole, I really enjoyed it.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

The Two Towers; Book 2

By J. R. R. Tolkien

Catholic-ometer: 5 of 5




Enjoyability: 5 of 5




The second book of the Two Towers chronicles the journey of Frodo and Sam across the lands outside of Mordor; the cliffs, the marshes, and the crossroads, where after discovering that traveling through the black gate isn't an option, they meet the Gondor captain Faramir.  He finds out about the ring, but refuses to try to claim it, or take it back to Gondor with him.  Instead, he lets the hobbits go on their way again, towards Cirith Ungol; where a tremendous spider lays in wait for them.

Over the course of this book, the hobbits meet and befriend Gollum, who, for a while, guides them towards Mordor, but ultimately betrays them in the hopes of getting the ring back.  The book ends with a climactic fight between the giant spider Shelob and Sam; struggling to protect the life of his best friend Frodo.

I honestly think that this book is the best I've read so far, out of the first four.  It has tension, which doesn't really let up at any point during it, and the final battle against Shelob is one of the best in the book series.  I was also very impressed with the strong relationships between the characters of Frodo and Sam, and the constant development of the character of Gollum throughout the book.  His character in particular is both amusing (at times) and also an interesting illustration of what happens to a person mired in, and addicted to grave evil; how they develop when shown kindness, and how easily they betray when tempted again.

I found Faramir to be an interesting character, in a sense, although many of Tolkien's human characters seem to ring a bit hollow to me, perhaps because I personally prefer stories of the fantastic, while he seems enamored with humans (a major thread in LOTR, at any rate, though less in the movies than in the books.)  Faramir doesn't really suffer from this, however, because he has the chance to develop relationships with Frodo, Sam and Gollum, and to show what kind of man he is by the choices he makes.  Because all this effort was put into him, I find him to be a well fleshed-out character, and a boon to this book, rather than a drag.

For this reason, I give the second book of the Two Towers a perfect score.  I'm very impressed with it, and I look forward to finishing the story.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

The Two Towers; Book 1

By J. R. R. Tolkien

Catholic-ometer: 4.5 of 5




Enjoyability: 4.5 of 5




The Two Towers is the second volume of the Lord of the Rings, and like the first, it's divided into two "books."  Spoilers for the next three paragraphs.

The first book covers the further splintering of the fellowship, as Merry and Pippin are carried off by a band of orcs, which have just killed the warrior Boromir.  Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas pursue them towards Isenguard, but soon discover that all the orcs were killed by the horsemen of Rohan, and the hobbits escaped into Fangorn.  They pursue them, but eventually, find Gandalf; alive and dressed in white, who tells them that the hobbits will be fine.

Indeed, Merry and Pippin are alright; having befriended a monstrous tree-being named Treebeard; leader of the ents.  Soon, the ents are going to war with the wizard Saruman, who sent the orcs into their land.

Gandalf and the others, however, travel to Rohan to muster their horsemen against Saruman's remaining forces.  There's a battle at Helm's Deep, and a confrontation with the wizard Saruman himself to endure, but ultimately, it's only a foretaste of the tremendous conflict to come; with Sauron, and Mordor.

The themes of good and evil are perhaps a bit less pronounced during the Saruman arc, but not by much.  It's pretty clear that he's the bad guy from the start, and this story delves much more into the specific things that evil does to a person who was once good.  The face-off scene between Saruman and Gandalf is, in my opinion, quite possibly the most complex and magnificent scene in the entire book; showcasing the true differences between the two, and the difference between minds accustomed to good, and to evil.

I also found this book just a bit more exciting than its predecessors, though I won't say it was perfect.  The parts with Treebeard moved rather slowly, and at times, it became difficult to tell who was responsible for what evils.  I also found the ents just a tiny bit threatening; not in terms of being scarey, but because they reminded me of modern naturalists.

Still, even on those terms, anyone trying to use ents as an analogy for naturalism would be basically shooting themselves in the foot, because there's no serious comparison of the sort that could be made.  Ents are intelligent, and trees aren't.  If trees were intelligent, they too would have civil rights, and naturalists would be out of a job.

I also feel I should say a few words about the battle at Helm's Deep.  I really enjoyed reading it, and liked the way it was resolved.  In fact, I'm sort of not sure which I like better; the movie version or the book version, and up to now, I've liked the movie version of most Tolkien battles better.  Maybe it's just that this is the first battle he actually took time to dwell on and describe.

On the whole, I was very pleased with this book, and like the others, I reccomend it to those with patience and good reading skills.  It was a pleasure to read.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

The Fellowship of the Ring; Book 2

By J. R. R. Tolkien

Catholic-ometer: 5 of 5




Enjoyability: 4.5 of 5




The second "book" of the Fellowship of the Ring chronicles how the ring arrives at Rivendell, a council is held to determine what to do with it, (and to provide some much-needed backstory,) and Frodo, Sam, Pippin and Merry set out again from Rivendell, alongside Aragorn the Dunedain, Legolas the elf, Gimli the Dwarf, Boromir the man and the wizard Gandalf.  The party travels through the underground realm of Moria, the woods of Lothlorien, and down the river Anduin towards the fork in their path, where they must decide where to take the ring; to Gondor; city of men, or to Mordor, where it can finally be destroyed.  As they move on, party members begin to fall away, until finally, the fellowship is splintered, with only Sam and Frodo left the guard the ring itself.  Most of the fellowship members are either dead or in mortal danger by the time this book ends.

The humor of the first half of the book is replaced here with high adventure, although some sections feel a bit tacked-on (such as the showboating of many of the characters during the attempt to cross Caradhras.)  Additionally, the stay of the fellowship in Lothlorien feels neither humorous nor thrilling.  I honestly found it more strange than anything else; strange in a good way, but not really all that engaging, compared to the passing through Moria.

It's odd to say that the strangest place in the second half of the book was also the least intense, but that's how Lorien came across to me.  I thought that the whole second half of the book was a great deal more interesting and exciting than the first half, if only because of the lethal enemies that get introduced right off the bat, but in terms of overall story quality, I'd rate them about the same.  The point of the narrative is never really to set a mood or dwell on how the characters feel, which is probably for the best on some level.  When there's evil to deal with, personal feelings really don't matter.

We're still not into the "war" parts of the lord of the rings, exactly, and Tolkien seemed to have enjoyed skimming over smaller battles in his books.  The more I read, the more I'm struck by just how much better the pacing was in the films.  The books are just as good and entertaining, of course, but they're entertaining in a more high-fantasy, intellectual sense, rather than stressing mood, excitement or drama.  Though the story is almost identical, the book and movie versions of the Lord of the Rings are really very different from one another in tone and pacing.  Me, I like both, but not on the same day.

Friday, July 1, 2011

The Fellowship of the Ring; Book 1

By J. R. R. Tolkien

Catholic-ometer: 5 of 5




Enjoyability: 4.5 of 5




My intention, at this point, is to move on and review the Lord of the Rings.  I may review the Hobbit as well, at some future time, but for now, I'm going to review the series that sprung from it, and I'll review each "book" of it separately.  There are six in all.  Two are found in the first volume, two in the second, and two in the third.  Apparently, Tolkien originally meant for the books to be divided into six volumes; not three, so I'm taking him at his word, and that's how I'll review them.

The first "book" of the Fellowship of the Ring chronicles how Gandalf and Frodo discover the identity of an evil ring, and set out on a quest to get it out of Frodo's neighborhood (the Shire) before it can do any real harm.  That is, Frodo and some of his friends set out on said quest, but they need to do it without Gandalf, who has some other things he wants to check up on.  They expect Gandalf to reappear and accompany them, but he fails to do so, and in the end, they need to leave the shire without him.

During the first book, the hobbits leave the shire and have some adventures, encountering several strange things in the world outside.  Elves, an evil willow tree, a very powerful singing man named Tom Bombadil, some undead called wights, a bartender named Butterbur, and a ranger named Aragorn.  In the early parts of the book, not much happens to really excite or hold one in suspense.  I got the impression that Tolkien was trying to ease readers into his adventure book.  However, once the hobbits get to Bree, and meet Aragorn, things start to pick up.  They wander in the wilderness with him and quickly fall under attack by black riders.  Luckily, they meet an elf shortly after that, who gives Frodo his horse.  Frodo then needs to ride quickly to the ford, in order to get away from the black riders.

The scene at the end of this book, with Frodo in a sort of standoff against the black riders was really something; especially compared to the rest of the book, which was more whimsical and fun than suspenseful and exciting.  If all you know is the Peter Jackson movies, you may be surprised by how far the action and suspense were amped up in the movies (though, in my opinion, to great effect.)  Still, when I said that this book was whimsical and fun, that was exactly what I meant.

Many points in this book are just plain fun to read.  The adventure of the hobbits through the old forest, and their many songs and such while still in the shire were amusing and fun, and it was enjoyable to hear some of their stories about odd lands and strange people, as well as find out what happened to many of the characters from "The Hobbit."  If I had to pick just one character, however, who truly embodied the overall whimsy of this first book, it would definitely be Tom Bombadil; perhaps one of Tolkien's most interesting and powerful characters.  He's so powerful, in fact, that it's very hard to feel threatened with him around, and he dances in and out of scenes like a fairy in some children's tale.

That having been said, I think that most children would have a hard time sitting still for the whole story.  Some of Tolkien's descriptions get a bit lengthy, and children (unless they're very good and have been raised away from television,) would have a tough time with that, as much as they might like the subject matter.

Lastly, I should bring up my reason for reviewing these books in particular.  Tolkien was Catholic, and his writings reflect a Catholic view of the world; where evil and good are both refreshingly-clear, and evil attacks from both inside and outside, hiding in the smallest and seemingly most innocent things.  The ring itself seems both like a beautiful piece of jewelery and a fascinating source of magic power, but it's also small enough that people wouldn't normally think of it as being capable of so much harm.  There could not be a more perfect allegory for sin, which toutes itself as satisfaction for vanity, greed, the craving for power, and yet, often seems like it's no big deal.  Just one little sin.  No one would ever know.  Then suddenly, you're wounded almost to the heart by it, just like Frodo nearly was.

However, although I view the ring as an allegory, it's important to note that the allegory is far, far subtler than the ones used by C. S. Lewis in the Chronicles of Narnia.  In fact, I think that's the greatest strength of this series.  Lewis' allegories didn't interfere with the storytelling much in later books, but in Tolkien's writings, they hardly even seem like allegories half the time.  The real strength here is in the world view that the books have; the correct world view.  That there is good, and evil, and all types of people are somewhere along one of those roads, no matter how normal or odd they may seem.

Some might raise issue with the magic that gets thrown around in this story, and the other stories in this series, but it's important to remember that the "magic" in this tale is fantasy-magic.  It bears no real similarities to the real thing.  How can I tell?  Because of the world view of those who use it.  In this book, the heroes are, for the most part, outmatched and on the run from their enemies.  Evildoers are very strong, and the good are very weak, but nonetheless, they go on a quest to triumph over their much stronger adversaries.  The mentality of the weak prevailing over the strong runs directly contrary to the philosophy of the real occult; which always stresses the selfish pursuit of greater strength.  So long as this mentality is present (victory in weakness,) any talk of "magic" in these books is not dangerous; just a harmless fantasy element.  This is why I consider this book so good, overall.

The minor imperfections that I spot early on are simply that the pace starts out a bit slow, and doesn't really pick up until over halfway through.  Still, a patient reader shouldn't have any trouble getting through them, and even appreciating the sheer amount of detail that Tolkien put into this work.