Charles's Reviews > The Ring Goes East

** spoiler alert ** Whilst reading the previous book I was enjoying it so much it took me a while to realise Frodo and Sam weren’t in it and I felt extremely guilty to have forgotten them. So I was already concerned I wouldn’t enjoy this one as much. Upon starting book 4 I liked the choice of Frodo and Sam’s story having its own book as well as separating Orthanc from Barad-dur. But this also made it kinda drag as it’s mainly Frodo and Sam just walking and no Gandalf.

I’ve grown used to Tolkien’s writing style by this point but it is a slow read as it’s difficult to picture every passing cliff to the west or bush one league to the east that passes by and it’s hard to pick out the details that matter. I do love description and building a picture but a lot of times in Tolkien’s writing it’s the travelling on the road description that makes it a hard read for me. However there’s many moments in the whole series where his use of language is amazing to describe the setting like the night sky or the sunset over Mordor and these moments really land you in it.

The book does show how perilous and hopeless their quest is and the characters are developed really well and you feel the despair of the journey they’re going through. There are some great moments also,
‘What’s taters precious?’
‘Po-ta-toes’
I wonder how people pictured Gollum before the films. He’s such an excellent character and I did not expect Tolkien’s writing of him to be so vivid and comical at times and Tolkien writes the nuances of his split character so well.

I enjoy the conversation between characters and it was refreshing when they bumped into Faramir but that seemed to end up dragging on as well. He just seemed to be babbling about anything towards the end.

The last section picked up the pace a bit and was a welcome break from walking. Reading orcs talking to each other is always entertaining.
‘That’s my shiny shirt!’ There’s some great lines they came up with in the films that I was hoping would appear but sadly it appears this wasn’t an original Tolkien line. Unless it’s yet to come?!

The more I write this review the more I find myself having enjoyed this book. It’s definitely my least favourite so far but still has some great moments. For a book that’s just shy of 200 pages it did feel like a read double that.