The Return of the King (the Lord of the Rings #3)

Synopsis

The companions of the Ring have become involved in separate adventures as the quest continues. Aragorn, revealed a the hidden heir of the ancient Kings of the West, joined with the Riders of Rohan against the forces of Isengard, and took park in the desperate victory of the Hornburg. Merry and Pippin, captured by Orcs, escaped into Fangorn Forest and there encountered the Ents. Gandalf returned, miraculously, and defeated the evil wizard Saruman.
Meanwhile, Sam and Frodo progressed towards Mordor to destroy the Ring accompanied by Smeagol- Gollum, still obsessed with his "precious." After a battle with the giant spider Shelob, Sam left his master for dead; but Frodo is still alive- in the hands of the Orcs. And all the time the armies of the Dark Lord are massing.

J.R.R. Tolkein's great work of imaginative fiction has been labeled both a heroic romance and a classic fantasy fiction. By turns comic and homely, epic and diabolic, the narrative moves through countless changes of scene and character in an imaginary world which is totally convincing in its detail.

Loved

• SAM. AGAIN. Okay, Samwise Gamgee is officially not only my favorite character in LOTR, but my favorite anything in this series. I just absolutely adore this hobbit. Reading this, I was constantly amazed at Sam's cheerfulness and ability to think rationally, even when all hope had failed and all he could see was darkness (literally). I loved his ability to find hope even in the darkest, most soul-wrenching places in Middle-earth. I also love how Tolkein refers to Sam's "hardihood." What a perfect word for someone who will literally march into darkness against all the orcs of Mordor just out of loyalty and love for his master. Call me cheesy, but since listening to this, I've been trying to think more like Sam- trying to find reasons to hope, ways to laugh, and sense and reason even in hopeless circumstances. 

• Frodo and Sam. "Come Mr. Frodo. I may not be able to carry it for you, but I can carry you." Ah, I could just talk about Sam forever. But I love Frodo too. I love how much they trust and love each other, despite all the despair and hopelessness they face, especially in this book. I love how Sam constantly buoys Frodo up and doesn't let him lose hope. It was also SO refreshing to know they trust each other the whole time, whereas the movie has Frodo doubting Sam. Their friendship and love for each other is ultimately what gives them the strength to keep fighting and struggling to Mount Doom. 

• The battle. Wow. This battle has so many AMAZING moments- my favorite being Eowyn and Merry's insanely rad victory (which I won't spoil). All the characters have to pull out any ounce of courage they have for this battle, and it's amazing to see them become heroes in spite of their fear.

• Aragorn. "The hands of the king are the hands of a healer, and so the rightful king shall be known." One of my favorite character developments in this series is watching Aragorn begin as broody, wild Strider, and become gracious, noble and beloved King Aragorn. It's so satisfying to see him become kingly and noble and step into his destined role as King of Gondor. I love how Aragorn is made known as the true King through his healing hands. The way he heals and brings others back from the reaches of Sauron is inspiring and beautiful. What a perfect king- he can lead fearlessly into battle, but also heal all types of maladies with his gentle hands and quiet goodness.

• Merry and Pippin. In the movie I get so frustrated with Pippin that I have a hard time liking him, but I loved both him and Merry in the books. I loved their character development in the third book as Merry becomes King Theoden's squire and takes part in the battle, and Pippin becomes the servant of Denethor, steward of Gondor, and has to save Faramir. I loved watching them both step into important roles and experience such noble and foreign things than they have known in the Shire. They both do so much good and I love seeing them grow into wiser, braver hobbits than the ones who left the Shire a year earlier. I also love how awesome they are at the end of the book when they return home :) 

• I just love everything about this book. I won't write about these things, but I also loved Tokein's brilliant writing, the genius and wonder of Middle Earth, Faramir and Eowyn, and the beautiful poetry and songs.

Didn't Love

•  The one thing in this book that I didn't like was the lack of explanation about the dead army. I was really confused because we see Aragorn and his crew going to meet the dead army to convince them to fight, and the next time we see them, they are on the field of battle. All of the sudden the battle is over and there's hardly any explanation of how they won so quickly. Legolas and Gimli tell the story to Merry and Pippin later, but I wish we got a full story of what happened in those caves and the conversation that Aragorn had with the dead. There was also no explanation about why the dead had to fight and the history behind them. If I hadn't have known about them from the movie, I would've been really confused.

Content

• Language: 
• Occasional uses of "hell," and "damn."

• Sexual content: 
• One or two kisses, not at all described.

• Violence:
• LOTS of injuries and death through stabbing, arrows, hitting, clubs, and some beheadings- throughout the whole book.
• Many mentions of orcs stabbing and killing people.
• A big battle of orcs is described with much orc gore and bodies in a tower.
• One orc stabs another many times and jumps on him until he dies.
• The orcs have the heads of killed Gondor soldiers thrown over the walls of Gondor, causing people to grief and be sick.
• One character lights himself on fire on a funeral pyre and dies while standing and burning to death.
• A few characters suffer from the "Black Breath"- a sickness that comes from having been struck or striking a Ring Wraith. Described mostly as fever and despair.
• One character dies by being thrown down on his horse by a nazgul. The horse is killed by the nazgul's claws and the person dies under his horse.
• A finger is bitten off and blood described.
• Some orcs and servants of Sauron stab themselves.
• Mentions of a battle where some hobbits are stabbed/shot and killed.
• One character is killed by having his throat slit, the killer is then shot and dies.

 Overall Thoughts

Wow. I feel inadequate to put my thoughts on such a brilliant piece of literature. I hadn't read this series since being a young teenager, and I loved it more this time than I ever have before. I watch the movies frequently, and it was really fun to see the differences between the movies and the books (they are actually pretty similar- it's just that the movies leave out the slow parts in between). 
I also loved listening to the audiobooks because Rob Ingles does a phenomenal job at the voices and the songs. I highly recommend listening to them, even if you have already read them! 
Tolkein's work is unprecedented in its brilliance with developing such a thorough and enchanting world. Reading LOTR really does feel like reading history because the references, people, places and races are so detailed it feels real. I love the character development, the writing, and the epic-ness of it all. But mostly, I love that such simple creatures as hobbits end up being braver than anyone and stop the world from falling to evil.