Book Review
Title: The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings #2)
Author: J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Adult/Fantasy
Rating: ***
Review: At the end of Fellowship, we were left with Frodo and Sam going by themselves east to Mordor and leaving the rest of the fellowship behind to head west towards Gondor. I did notice here that there is a divergence between the book and movie as the Fellowship movie actually contains the opening few chapters of the Two Towers book where the first book just off just after Frodo and Sam leave the others to head to Mordor alone. The opening chapter of the Two Towers, The Departure of Boromir, is a scene from the movie that made me cry. The Two Towers opens with Boromir’s death which takes place in a completely different way to the movie as he alone is ambushed by the orcs while the other have split up to look for Frodo, but the time Aragorn hears Boromir’s horn and arrives the orcs have fled, Merry and Pippin are now missing in addition to Frodo and Sam and Boromir is dying. He confesses he tries to take the ring from Frodo and that the hobbits have been captured before he dies but he doesn’t tell Aragorn is Frodo and Sam are with them. By the time Legolas and Gimli arrive Boromir is dead and they try to piece together what has happened. They eventually come to the conclusion that Frodo and Sam have set out for Mordor alone and that they have to go after Merry and Pippin as they can’t abandon their friends. For the next three nights they track the orcs almost not stop into Rohan where they come across the Rohirrim who have killed most of the orcs, although their leader Eomer says that they didn’t see any hobbits with the orcs. Eomer lets them leave with horses despite it being against their law as they should have been taken to King Theoden and asks them to return when they can and Aragorn agrees. They track the orcs a little further and come to the conclusion that these orcs must be heading to Isengard but they are warned that some of the orcs are regular orcs and we know these to be the Uruk-Hai.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, we switch to Merry and Pippin’s story after their capture by the Orcs and Uruk-Hai. For a while they don’t know what is going on or where they are but Merry and Pippin especially are resourceful so they sit and listen to the orcs to gather all the information they can. I must say unlike the movies where they orcs only speak in the Black Tongue, these orcs and Uruk-Hai can speak in the common tongue and do it often as the orc speak differs from clan to clan much like accents or dialects we have. Eventually they learn that the orcs where given the orders to capture any hobbits and return them to Isengard alive so that Saruman can take the ring for himself although the orcs don’t know this as they haven’t been trusted with that information. However, the orcs are soon besieged by the riders of Rohan and during the battle they tempt on orc to lead them away from the others and while the orc is killed, the elvish cloaks Merry and Pippin wear hide them even from the keen sight of the Rohirrim. After the riders leave, Merry and Pippin free themselves of their bonds and travel away from the battle and they soon enter the Fangorn Forest which they have been warned about several times but they have no choice but to pass through it. While they stop for a short break, they meet Treebeard, also known as Fangorn who is an Ent and they take a liking to each other. The hobbits tell their story to Treebeard although they omit the ring and their quest but Treebeard decides to help them since he is against Saruman and the orcs until his command. Treebeard manages to rouse the Ents and after a council among them they decide to march on Isengard and to wage war against Saruman who has betrayed their trust and Merry and Pippin are going with them. We switch back to Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas who are tracking the hobbit through Fangorn although they are about two days behind the hobbits and there, they meet an old man they assume to be Saruman in disguise but it turns out to be Gandalf. They briefly catch up there and they learn that Gandalf defeated the Balrog but died shortly after but he was returned to life with a new purpose, the same purpose that once belonged to Saruman which is why Aragorn and the others couldn’t tell them apart. Gandalf informs his friends of Merry and Pippin who are reasonable safe where they are and of Frodo and Sam who lie beyond their help. Gandalf tells them that their new destination in the home of Theoden as war is coming to Rohan and Gondor much faster than anyone can expect since Sauron is making decisions without even considering that the destruction of the ring is the purpose of its bearer. Gandalf calls Shadowfax and two more horses to carry them back towards Rohan and the home of Theoden where they can hope to aid in the war that is steadily marching towards them.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, I have to admit while the pacing is better in the Two Towers than in the Fellowship of the Ring, the writing is still very dry and it makes it hard to consume the book in large quantities but since we are getting to some more action filled parts of the story, I am enjoying it a lot more. The travel to the home of Theoden only to find that the King’s mind has been poisoned by Wormtongue and it takes Gandalf’s new powers to drive him out and partially restore the King to what he was before. Here we are also introduced to Eowyn, Théoden’s daughter, who takes quite the liking to Aragorn and he to her in some ways but they don’t really interact that much. After being restored Theoden offers to fight and they take their soldiers out to Isen only to find that the warriors already there are either defeated or retreating to Helm’s Deep. The King and his troops along with the remainder of the Fellowship make for Helm’s Deep where at battle is beginning to be fought. The battle of Helm’s Deep wasn’t as action packed as the movie as it focused more on the length of the battle and the toll it took on the characters but it did feature Legolas and Gimli keeping score which was just as entertaining as the movie. The battle of Helm’s Deep seems swiftly one and a small force set off to Isengard to see if Saruman can be reasoned with. As they leave Helm’s Deep, the Ents are made known to men who have only heard of them in legends, which they aren’t anymore. Upon arriving there they can see a battle has been fought and they find Merry and Pippin sitting by the gates. It is Merry who informs them that Saruman and Wormtongue are imprisoned in the tower and Treebeard has control over Isengard and sends Theoden and Gandalf to him. The hobbits are also legends to these men and the conversation between Merry and Theoden was hilarious in the places especially when the topic of pipe weed is brought up.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, we continue to follow the fellowship minus Frodo and Sam as Isengard has fallen to the Ents and Helm’s Deep is still under the control of men. There Gandalf tries to reason with Saruman to make him see sense but he has gone too far into the scheming and plotting for it to be of any use. However, when they turn to leave, Wormtongue throws something from one of the windows which turns out to be a Palantir, a device created by the Men of the West to communicate over long distance which is how Saruman has been communicating with Sauron. Pippin seems drawn to the Palantir in the same way others are drawn to the ring and when he takes it from Gandalf while he is sleeping and looks into it, he ends up being questioned by Sauron himself. While Sauron learns he is a hobbit, he doesn’t know that the Palantir has left Isengard and he believe that Pippin has been captured by Saruman which buys them some time in order to regroup ready for the next assault. In doing this, Pippin also saved Gandalf looking into the Palantir where Sauron could get much more information that he could use to devastating effect before the Palantir is returned to its rightful owner in Aragorn. We then switch back to Frodo and Sam who we haven’t seen since the end of the Fellowship of the Ring. Sam and Frodo are trying to make their way to Mordor but without a guide they are constantly getting lost and they are also aware that Gollum has been following them for a while. Eventually they confront Gollum and we see a strange connection forming between Gollum and Frodo as they both have a connection to the ring. Sam is very distrustful of Gollum but after Frodo makes him swear by the ring that he won’t betray them and he will guide them to Mordor, they relax a little although Sam is constantly on guard around Gollum. At this point we see the personalities of Gollum and Smeagol split a little as Smeagol is more present right now. Smeagol leads them through the mountains and across the dead marshes bringing them every closer to their destination which is a good thing. However, Frodo knows that Gollum will at some point try to betray them and take the ring from him and he also knows that Smeagol won’t enter Mordor again. We see this very thing coming true as Gollum and Smeagol are conspiring to take the ring from Frodo and while they don’t have any love for Sam, Smeagol makes sure that they won’t hurt Frodo in the process since he has come to like Frodo as Frodo has been kind to him. Unaware that Sam has overheard this conversation although he plays it off might just be the downfall of Gollum in the end.
The next few sections of the novel are basically Sam, Frodo and Gollum trying to get to Mordor without dying or in the case of Sam letting paranoia get the best of him. I found it a little disappointing we go from 50% to around 70% with absolutely nothing happening so by the time I reached the ¾ mark I was really bored and hoped that something would happen soon to make the story remotely interesting as there was still over 100 pages left to go. By the time we reach the ¾ mark in the novel, we have finally reached the point where Gollum’s betrayal is looking extremely likely especially since the Black Gates are now within sight which means pretty soon Sam and Frodo are going to be crossing into Mordor for the final part of their journey but I felt the pacing was so bad in this book, it is worse than in the first book as we cross to Sam and Frodo for a huge chunk of the book and literally nothing happens when we could be following the others in Rohan and Gondor leading up to the inevitable final battle that is to come and cross to Frodo and Sam at this point as we would be following them through Gollum’s betrayal and them making their way through Mordor which would have been far more interesting and kept the reader entertained. I am truly beginning to understand the book vs movie debate now, in most cases I fall on the side of the books but in the case of Lord of the Ring definitely watch the movies first, the book are dry and often feel quite bland at time which I genuinely don’t understand. I know it isn’t a classical fantasy thing as I liked most of the books in the Earthsea series and I loved the Chronicles of Narnia which are classical fantasy but LotR is something else and not in a good way as everything just seems to drag on and on when we really should be switching to the wider perspective or at least checking in with the other characters to give the readers a break from the same monotonous events.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, I had to take a break from reading to read something else so that this book wouldn’t put me in a reading slump and I just wanted it to be over so I could get to the final book and just say I had completed the LotR series. Gollum eventually tells Sam and Frodo about another way to enter Mordor since the gates are heavily guarded but before they get anywhere close, they are found by Faramir and his soldiers so it seems they have reached an impasse for now. After spending some time with Faramir and learning some of what is happening in the outside world, Sam and Frodo are allowed to continue on with Gollum, but they are given several warnings about the path Gollum is taking them but they don’t have a choice anymore with Mordor being so close. Unknown to the hobbits, Gollum is leading them straight into Shelob’s lair where she will kill them so Gollum can retrieve the ring. However, Gollum doesn’t count on them having the elvish light from Galadriel or the strength of Sam when it comes to protecting his master. While he manages to both wound Shelob and escape, Frodo isn’t as lucky and for a time Sam thinks his friend and master is dead, so he relieves him of the burden of the ring intending to carry it forward by himself. However, he soon hears orcs heading his way and has no choice but to use the ring to hide but when they find Frodo’s body he turns back intent on protecting Frodo even in death. He follows the orcs who have taken Frodo through the tunnels where he learns that Frodo has been poisoned by Shelob but he isn’t dead which gives Sam a lot of hope but the orcs make it inside Mordor before Sam meaning Frodo has been taken inside while Sam is locked outside and he now has to figure out how to get in and rescue Frodo so they can complete their quest. Overall, The Two Towers for the beginning and ending portions was faster paced than Fellowship of the Ring but there were huge sections of the novel that felt unnecessary despite its relatively short length. I will be reading the final book in the series since I have already come so far but I don’t have much hope that the pacing is going to be better, I can only hope the actions scenes that are going to be there are enough to get me through the book.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Also see: The Hobbit, Or There and Back Again
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