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.
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