The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (1954) Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. I'm back with a book review. I finished The Two Towers last night before bed so here I am to talk about it. This is probably going to be a slightly shorter review since all the background was given to us last time, and I already gave you my history with Tolkien's work, specifically The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Like with last time, because this book is 70 years old, I will be including spoilers when I feel the need to do so. So if you have not read The Two Towers, or any of The Lord of the Rings for that matter, please do so at some point either before you read my reviews of the books, or after, depending on when you feel like reading them. Alrighty, let's get into it.

While The Fellowship of the Ring is more whimsical and fun, particularly in the early chapters of the first half of the book, The Two Towers continues on the more serious tone of the second half of Fellowship. This book is much darker than the first part. Though Merry and Pippin do provide some comic relief in the first half of the book.

So the first half of the book, The Treason of Isengard follows Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli as they follow the trail of the two Hobbits who'd been captured by Orcs, as well as their journey to Isengard by way of Rohan, following their meeting of the Riders of Rohan, led by Eomer. They also discover that Gandalf has returned and has replaced the fallen Saruman as the chief of the Wizards in Middle Earth. It also features the Battle of Helm's Deep. 

When I first read this part of the book about a decade ago, when I still had the seven volume box set, I was confused as to why Frodo wasn't in this half of the book, thinking that as the main character, he should be the main focus since we're supposed to be following him on his journey to get rid of the Ring. Now, Frodo and Sam are some of my favourite characters in this trilogy, with Sam being my favourite, so I was confused when I discovered that we don't see them at all in this section of the book. Especially because I saw the movie in theatres back in early 2003 and that began with Frodo and Sam, which then switches back to the rest of the Fellowship before returning to Frodo, Sam, and Gollum near the end of the movie.

Reading it this time around though, I think it was a good call on the part of Tolkien to split the book up so that we have the Fellowship and everything going on in the rest of Middle Earth in the first half before zeroing in on Frodo, Sam, and Gollum for the rest of the book. Especially because of how long they're with Faramir in Gondor before heading towards Mordor.

I think my favourite part of this first half is where we meet Treebeard and the Ents in Fangorn Forest. The Ents are so deliberate about everything they do, and the fact that they do things in their own time, not rushing about. Again, Tolkien continues to develop Middle Earth without completely stopping the story to do so. 

I find it interesting that while Gandalf was killed fighting the Balrog in the last book, some higher power returned him to Middle Earth to replace Saruman as the White in charge of the Wizards. Almost so there's a balance between good and evil. I know, that's putting it in very simple terms, but, Gandalf and Saruman are like Professor Xavier and Magneto in some of the comics, and in many of the X-Men movies and TV shows, or the Emperor and Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars Trilogy (1977-1983), and various other characters who each represent a side in a conflict. I find it interesting because, at least within the scope of this trilogy, and its immediate prequel, there aren't gods like beings like the Morphin Masters from Power Rangers or the Father, the Daughter, and the Son from Star Wars. Yet there must be because Gandalf was sent back following his death.

Okay, so, I need to talk about Samwise Gamgee in the second half of the book. He puts up with so much in those ten chapters. From Gollum, to being captured by Faramir and his people, to fighting Shelob the Spider monster. I loved the part where, fed up with Faramir's suspicion of them, tells them off by telling them about Frodo's quest, and WHY the Ring was so dangerous, using Boromir as an example of how the Ring's power can corrupt even the most noble hearted person if in their possession long enough. And THEN when Frodo has been taken down by Shelob and Sam believes that he's dead, he takes the Ring and chooses to continue the Quest on his own. He doesn't complain one bit about it because of how devoted he is to Frodo.

Speaking of Frodo, he doesn't get a whole lot to do in this book. It's almost like the second half of the book is Sam's story, not Frodo's. Which is fine, because, again, I love Sam. I just find it interesting that the actual protagonist of the book/trilogy of books doesn't have alot going on in the middle part of the trilogy. But, in a way that's also a good thing because oftentimes with long running book series, or TV shows so much happens to the main character in the first few books or first few seasons that by the time the book or TV series ends they haven't done anything in seasons and the audience stops caring. But if you have a trilogy of books it's okay to have a part of it where the main character doesn't have as much to do and another character is focused on.

As for Gollum, he's not as scary as I remember him being. Maybe that's just because this version of Gollum isn't played by Andy Serkis and we don't get into his head at all, as the book stays focused on Sam and Frodo in the second half, while we have several scenes of Gollum talking to himself, away from Sam and Frodo. 

While Merry and Pippin are almost the comic relief, I like that we do spend so much time with them at the beginning of the book. Just because they felt like tertiary characters in The Fellowship of the Ring, and we didn't get to know them very well, beyond the scope of their roles in that book. Here though, we get to know them very well and I think they're interesting characters.

I didn't talk much about Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli in the last review, simply because, again, the focus wasn't really on them. But here, they're far more interesting than they were in the first book. Especially Aragorn as we find out that there's even more to him than we were led to believe in the first book, as he was the heir to the throne of Gondor. I find it fascinating that Aragorn, a supporting character is taking his own Hero's Journey, alongside Frodo. I don't often encounter this in the movies and TV shows that I enjoy watching, as they mostly have an ensemble cast, where the focus isn't on a single individual, or the show and movie in question has a singular main character, and the supporting cast doesn't do much. Again, using simple terms, this shows that everyone is the hero of their own story. In Aragorn's case he's a king who was hidden away following the deaths of his parents many many years ago. Frodo is a simple Hobbit from the Shire, who has a job to do.

Overall The Two Towers is a really good book. There's so much I could talk about but this review would be way too long if I attempted it. Instead I'm just going to say that if you've never read The Lord of the Rings, definitely give it a try, because I'm really enjoying it now that I have the trilogy in the three volume version (with The Hobbit).

Alright my friends, that's it for me for this week. I'll be back with more blog posts. Until then, have a great weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.