Our Movie Reviews Lord of the Rings
The Return of the King

Author: J. R. R. Tolkien
Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Last Reviewed On: June 5, 2002 (by Scott)


Scott's Review:
4.5 out of 5 stars on June 5, 2002

After struggling through the first volume, and thoroughly enjoying the second volume, I was a bit worried when I started this volume.

As the name of the part implies, this deals with the returning of the King to Middle Earth. Some bits of the political aspects of this volume were a bit difficult to follow. Though, that really didn't last that long, and in retrospect, this part did neatly clean up some of the outstanding issues that I had with the other volumes. Once that was done, we returned to the core story of the series, and it was incredibly done.

I haven't really encountered many books of this genre that have a good and satisfying end to them. This one really did. Not only do the characters continue to develop and behave as very real individuals, and indeed even the world around them evolves in a believable fashion. The ending is a bit of a bittersweet ending, but it's still a satisfying conclusion to the story being told, and manages to leave almost no lose ends lying around.

After the story is concluded, Tolkien includes an appendix with a great deal of information on the background of Middle Earth. It was a bit too much fluff for my tastes, but it does show just how much detail and work went into the books.

All in all, even though the first volume might be difficult to muddle through, I highly recommend the entire series. It's an excellent, epic story, very well told, and quite enjoyable to read.


-- Scott and Michelle