The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien

I picked up The Two Towers immediately after finishing The Fellowship of the Ring, eager to see how Frodo's journey to destroy the ring would continue. The story picks up immediately after the events of the first book, with the group at a crossroads. Frodo, fearing the ring's corrupting influence on the group, decides to sneak off on his own and deliver the ring to Mordor. Samwise, guessing his intentions, catches up to him and pledges to stay beside him until the end. Meanwhile, the rest of the group is thrown into chaos by an orc attack. Merry and Pippin are almost immediately captured and carried away as prisoners. Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas survive the attack, and find themselves alone once the dust settles. They quickly deduce that Frodo and Sam have probably left to continue the journey of the ring on their own, so they decide to pursue the orcs and try to rescue Merry and Pippin. The first half of the novel alternates between Aragorn's party and Merry and Pippin as they attempt to make their way back to each other.

Meanwhile, Frodo and Sam are desperately trying to make their way into Mordor, but soon realize that they need some sort of guide that's been there before. They eventually manage to convince Gollum, the same miserable creature Bilbo took the ring from years before, to lead the way. Gollum, hopelessly corrupted by his past history with the ring, has been quietly following them for some time in the hopes of stealing the ring back for himself. He doesn't really have an interest in helping Frodo, but he is very interested in being closer to the ring, so he grudgingly takes them to Mordor through secret pathways. The second half of the novel follows them as they confront danger after danger in their quest to reach the fires of Mount Doom.

This is the middle novel of the main LotR series, and it definitely felt like it. The entire series is really meant to be read one right after the other, as if it's one long book. My edition even continued the page numbers from the previous novel, starting off on page 403. As such, there isn't really a narrative arc present. It's literally the middle of the journey and is basically all rising action.  Most of the story is taken up with long descriptions of the characters walking through different landscapes and exploring new places. Much like in Fellowship of the Ring, these descriptions are very well-written, but are also long and detailed to the point of tedium. The stretches of walking are punctuated with action scenes, of course, and the various battles and monster attacks are the best parts of the story. The battle at Hornburg, Gandalf's confrontation with Saruman, and Frodo and Sam's fight with Shelob were very memorable and definite high points, but so many slow sections of walking and talking surrounded them that the book often felt quite slow. 

I ended up taking longer to read this novel that I should have, just because I wasn't always excited to pick it up. What really saved it for me was the fact that the second half was the half that dealt with Frodo and Sam, which I found to be infinitely more interesting than the first half with Aragorn and company. Even so, this one wasn't the easiest read. I missed seeing all of the characters interact with each other, and the inclusion of more people and places started to get confusing. It's a lot of names and places to try and remember. Also, much like in Fellowship there was a real lack of female characters in the story, which continued to be tiresome.

Of course, this novel is classic fantasy for a reason, and I could still recognize that Tolkien's writing was excellent and well-planned. His characters remained consistent and likable, and Frodo and Sam continued to grow and change in satisfying ways. I didn't love this novel, but I didn't hate it either. Overall, I don't have much more to say on The Two Towers, as it was the middle part of a story that is still building up to its crescendo. I am definitely interested to see how it all turns out in the end with Return of the King, so even though this wasn't a favorite of mine, I'm still continuing on and determined to finish the series.

 

Challenge Tally
Classics Club (#43 on my list): 3/4 books in series completed - working towards 74/100 books completed

Total Books Read in 2020: 48