As someone who’s read the Lord of the Rings no less than 30 times, I’m inclined to agree.
The Fellowship of the Ring merely sets the stage for the masterpieces that are The Two Towers and The Return of the King.
Fellowship doesn’t even get truly great until everyone gets to Rivendell.
/runs and hides
Mom & I read The Hobbit together, aloud, when I was in 3rd grade. I loved it. I couldn’t get into any of the other books, though. I’d get maybe a chapter or two in, and just quit.
All the chatter here about LTR and such, instead of about the piece of crap book that the post is actually about, reminds me that it’s not ALWAYS a great thing that so many commeneters here are “happy mutants.”
Some of are sad, but… fake it til ya make it?
Hm, last and only time I read TKAM was around 1985. So I definitely won’t be commenting on it one way or another until I’ve reread it as an actual adult.
I would love to have seen how The Pale King would have done
if he would have been able to finish it.
I’d also love to see some love for The Big Rock Candy Mountain and
Magic Mountain (is that one timed out?) .
Hm, that is a lot of love and mountains, isn’t it?
I think she was technically alive at the time, but she didn’t seem to be managing her own affairs
I’d argue that that’s true of all of LOTR, not just the Fellowship, even though I love it for the world building. And unfortunately an awful lot of later bad fantasy novels took the mediocre plot (a team of reluctant adventurers take down the Big Bad) without ever coming close to the world-building Tolkien did.
It wins in the “used to be fiction but is now non-fiction” category.
More importantly, it wasn’t the story Lee wanted to tell. Someone else fished it out of the archives in order to make a few bucks, but Lee never planned to have it published.
Talk about “mainstreaming” . . . The question should have been “what’s the best book that you just read?” It seems no one took into account that it’s a 125 year span of worldwide literature, not a (yet again) “viral” exercise via Reader’s Digest.
I always felt the Hobbit was the best book of the four. I’ve lost track how many times I read it, but I do know when the last time I did was - when my 2 year old shredded my ~40 year old copy during a wander. I only picked up a copy a few years back, over 25 years later.
This publishing of stories after an author dies…I’ve heard mixed stores about Douglas Adams’ post-death books that waffle between he’d like it and he’d hate it.
I’m glad Sir Terry was clear on it, and his family respected it
I’m very worried about Good Omens part 2.
Understandable, but you shouldn’t worry too much, since it’s Neil Gaiman. He’s a reliable, trustworthy chap.
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