Let’s talk about expectations.
If you are expecting a fast paced action-adventure novel with modern ideals of characterization, description, and POV, you will be disappointed. It’s an old book, and the writing back then was different than most modern novels. That doesn’t mean it’s a “bad” book, but it does mean it isn’t fine-tuned to modern sensibilities. Here’s what you can expect:
Slow-Paced
The book starts on the slower side, taking time to set up the world and the story.
Soft-Magic System
This means that the reader doesn’t entirely understand why or how some elements of the magic work. Gadalf can do things, and he does them on occasion, but we also know he can’t do everything. The Ring has some more specific “rules” to it, but we still don’t quite understand why or how it works, we just know that it’s really better not to put the ring on.
Journey Story
Most of the Fellowship of the Ring is this kind of story, where the entire point is to get from point A to point B to do a thing. Yes, it is an adventure story, and there are action scenes, but there’s also…a lot of walking. But it’s an interesting journey! You just have to know what you’re getting into. By the second and third book, the journey story continues (we haven’t reached B yet), but the scope of the story expands to incorporate many different countries and cultures. It’s not just a quest, but it’s a war against evil. It’s a fight for the very world. We have enormous stakes.
Long, but not that long
One of the most common complaints I hear about the Lord of the Rings is, “But it’s so long!” It’s not that long. At least in comparison to the other fantasy heavy-hitters out there. The entire Lord of the Rings trilogy is less than half the length of the Harry Potter series. It’s about a tenth (a tenth!) of the length of the Wheel of Time series (which may possibly be the longest series in existence?). Of course, these are just a few random examples, but finding books that are 150,000 to 200,000 words is not at all uncommon nowadays. In comparison, the chart below shows the word count for each Lord of the Rings book.
| Book | Word Count |
| The Hobbit | 95,022 |
| The Fellowship of the Ring | 177,227 |
| The Two Towers | 143,436 |
| The Return of the King | 134,462 |
Wholesome themes
Despite the dark themes and good vs. evil nature of the book, I truly believe the Lord of the Rings is a book that pushes back the dark. We see good triumph. We see evil vanquished. We see sacrifice and servant-leadership, friendship and loyalty. The excellent execution of the themes is what make this book a masterpiece.
There’s a lot more I could say about this book, but I’ll stop here so you can go read it yourself. Go forth and enjoy reading the father of fantasy.
Content: PG-13 for violence and dark themes