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Title: The Two Towers
Series: Lord of the Rings #2
Author: John Tolkien
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 436
Format: Digital Edition
Series: Lord of the Rings #2
Author: John Tolkien
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 436
Format: Digital Edition
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Synopsis:
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The Fellowship is
broken. Gandalf and Boromir are dead, Frodo and Sam have slipped off
on their own to find their way into Mordor to destroy the Ring, Merry
and Pippin have been captured by Orcs and Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli
must decide which set of hobbits to follow and support.
The first quarter
of the book follows Merry and Pippin as they have their various
adventures. Merry and Pippin are captured by the orcs and are on
their way to Orthanc, Saruman's stronghold. Saruman knows that a
hobbit holds the One Ring, but he doesn't know which one. The Orc
band, however, is ambushed by the riders of Rohan and destroyed. One
of the orcs from Sauron had taken the hobbits outside the orc camp to
find for himself what Saruman wanted and this kept the hobbits alive
during the attack. They proceed into the forest of Fangorn. There
they meet the Ent Treebeard and help convince him and the other Ents
that Saruman is a real threat and must be dealt with. Their part of
the book ends with the Ents and their herds of trees marching off to
Orthanc.
The second quarter
of the book follows Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli as they try to rescue
Merry and Pippin. After the breaking of the Fellowship, Aragorn is
torn between following Frodo and Sam or rescuing Merry and Pippin. He
chooses to rescue Merry and Pippin as he realizes that Frodo and Sam
CHOSE to go off on their own. The three friends begin a tracking
expedition and start running after the orcs. They find signs that the
Hobbits are alive. They then run into the Riders of Rohan who
destroyed the orc band. The Riders didn't see any signs of the
Hobbits but the three friends are convinced that the Hobbits are
still alive. The three friends find signs that the Hobbits survived
the ambush and begin tracking them into the forest of Fangorn. There
they meet an old man who they take for Saruman but is revealed as
Gandalf returned from the dead. Gandalf lets them know that the
Hobbits are safe with the Ents and they (Gandalf and the 3 friends)
must begin rousing allies against both Saruman AND Sauron. They all
head over to Rohan to get Theoden ready. They find him under the
influence of Wormtongue, an ally of Saruman. Gandalf drives
Wormtongue out and Theoden rallies his riders. Scouts bring news that
Saruman's entire orc army has marched on Rohan and is destroying
everything they find. Everyone heads to Helm's Deep, a fortress where
the Rohirrim make their last stand. Things are looking very bad for
them until a whole forest of living trees and a band of riders led by
Gandalf and Theoden's nephew show up. The riders break the siege and
the Forest deals with the orcs. Everyone goes to Orthanc. The Ents
have destroyed Isengard (the city built around the tower of Orthanc)
but Saruman has taken refuge in Orthanc. Gandalf confronts Saruman
and casts him out of the Council of the Wise. Wormtongue throws a
stone at them that turns out to be a Palantir, a device that allows
the user to see around the world and to communicate with other
Palantirs.
The final half of
the book deals with Frodo and Sam and Gollum as they make their way
towards Mordor. Frodo extracts a promise from Gollum to help them.
Gollum leads them Mordor but they can't get in. Gollum reveals that
he knows a secret way in through a tunnel in one of the mountains. On
the way there the Hobbits meet Faramir, Boromir's younger brother.
Faramir finds out the secret of the Ring but shows he's a better man
than Boromir by not even trying to take the Ring. The Hobbits
continue their journey and Gollum leads them to the secret passage.
There he disappears and the Hobbits must make their way through the
tunnel on their own. They are ambushed by a giant spider named
Shelob, who is an evil power on her own. Gollum is her vassal and
plans on taking the Ring from the corpses of Frodo and Sam once she
has eaten them. With the Phial of Galadriel and Sting, Sam destroys
Shelob but not before she stings Frodo. Frodo enters a deathlike
state and Sam is convinced he is dead. Sam takes the Ring and
realizes the burden to destroy it is now his. Some orcs come along
and Sam finds out that Frodo isn't actually dead. The orcs take Frodo
to their base and the book ends with Sam using the Ring to follow
them so he can rescue Frodo.
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My
Thoughts:
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For a 400+ page book, this felt incredibly short. Things just happen
bam, bam, bam! It was great to be honest. Lean, sparse and yet fully
fleshed out, the writing here wasn't like some of the stuff we get
today, ie, “world building”. Man, save me from “world building”
for world building's sake. Tolkien reveals a LOT about his world but
it never becomes the point of the story and it always is secondary to
the plot. It was masterfully done in my opinion.
Another thing I appreciated, that annoys me with more modern stuff,
is that we stuck with one group POV for ¼, ¼ and then ½ of the
book. We don't follow a character for one chapter and then skip to
another. My literary feet were firmly grounded in each POV instead of
jumping and whirling and generally giving me motion sickness (I'm
looking at you, John Gwynne and your horrible, terrible, no-good
Valor).
It was also written in such a way that I wasn't thinking about the
other characters not on page. I was fully invested in each group as I
read about them.
I mentioned how short this felt. Not only that but the story itself
sped by. If I hadn't been reading carefully, so many things are
mentioned by a character that aren't fully written out, I would have
missed a lot. Tolkien doesn't pad out anything and he expects his
readers to be paying attention and not need everything spoon fed to
them. As a grumpy “get your YA off my lawn!” man, I appreciate
that. It also lends itself towards re-reads, as you will miss some
things on each read or not fully grasp the import of a sentence until
you've read it again years later.
All of that being said, this does feel very much like the Grandfather
of Fantasy. What I expect today and what I am used to (even if I am
not fully behind it, like 1000 page tomes) is very different and that
colors my perception of this.
Overall, this was a great read and a fantastic way to end the month.
★★★★★
