This review is for the Recorded Books audiobook version of The Return of the King, read by Rob Inglis.

In this last installment in the story of the War of the Ring, Tolkien brings together all his storylines for a thrilling finish. All the members of the Fellowship are strategically placed like pieces on a chessboard, awaiting the final outcome of their plans. Gandalf assumes command of Minas Tirith in its siege. Merry offers his service to the king of Rohan. Pippin becomes an esquire of Gondor. Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas take the Paths of the Dead. And somewhere in the wasteland, Sam and Frodo struggle on toward Mount Doom, almost losing themselves on the journey.

What can I say about Tolkien's genius that other reviewers have not? The scope of his imagination, from its vastness to its tiny details, astounds me every time. This was an especially enjoyable reread, as I listened to it on audiobook. I should like to meet Rob Inglis. You can tell he has a deep love for the story he is telling. He gets it, and it's lovely to walk through Middle-earth in company with a narrator who really understands its atmosphere. Sometimes he phrases things differently than I would have, but I almost always like his pronunciations and emphases better than my own. The music he wrote for the many songs in the book is passable; some are certainly better than others. I think he was quite brave to even make the attempt.

Some readers object to the Scouring of the Shire at the end, saying that it is anticlimactic. Peter Jackson cut that entire sequence out of his film version, and there are admittedly some valid reasons for doing that. But as a purist, I love all the story, and find that the invasion of the Shire is both humorous and terribly sad. And Tolkien is making an important point: the hobbits must put into practice at home all the lessons they learned on their journeys. Gandalf tells them they are more than capable of setting things right in the Shire, for "this is what you have been trained for." Merry especially shines in the resulting action, mobilizing the Shire's forces and setting up a successful battle plan.

There is a tension between pacifism and war that Tolkien brings sharply into focus through the differing convictions of Frodo and Merry. Frodo does not wish for any fighting in the Shire and refuses to fight in the battle, but Merry is more realistic, arguing that the Shire won't be saved by them standing around looking "shocked and sad." Nor will the marauders be reasoned with. Sometimes negotiation is not possible. Everything that is precious can be destroyed, even the beautiful Shire, unless it is decisively defended, sometimes by force. Tolkien, who fought in World War I and lived through World War II, certainly had some justification for this view... and yet Frodo's position is a nod of respect toward those who conscientiously object to war even when it is necessary.

There are plenty of battles in this volume, from the vast siege of Minas Tirith to the primitive struggle between Frodo and Gollum at the edge of the chasm, but it is not all action. Tolkien does a brilliant job with the characters' relationships, most notably the Sam/Frodo/Gollum and Aragorn/Éowyn/Faramir triangles. Sam and Éowyn stand out to me especially. Sam's dogged determination and humble loyalty make him heroic right alongside his master and the other more traditional heroes. And Éowyn's development is so beautifully handled; Tolkien, speaking through Gandalf, notes her courageous spirit and how it was hemmed in by her gender. Éowyn — with the help of another marginalized character, Merry — does one of the greatest deeds of the war, something that "no living man" could do. Sam and Éowyn exemplify Tolkien's fascination with the unlikely hero.

This is the longest it's ever taken me to read The Lord of the Rings, because it was all on audiobook. I started near the end of September and have just now finished. I've enjoyed the leisurely pace of this reread/listen. It is no wonder that this book, often scorned by those Tom Shippey calls "the literati," has had such an incredible impact on its genre. It has set the standard by which all other fantasy works are judged.

Thank you, J. R. R. Tolkien. ( )

Warning to those out there who haven't read it - I cannot discuss this book without what may be considered as major spoilers.

Tolkien does not flag at any point in this epic story. He's also the master of the slow reveal, so that as the story goes on, and particularly in the demoument (which is pretty lengthy), we as the reader shift back and back, and slowly come to realise the immensity of the story, and the vastness of what has just been going on. The fact that an Age has come to an end, and the Elves and Gandalf just disappear from Middle Earth never to return, gives a sense of sadness and loss amid the victory. And with Sam left bereft of Frodo after all he did for him, well, I admit it: I cried.

I'm not sure what I think about the communist/fascist angle that suddenly emerges on returning to the Shire. I felt for a while as if I'd wandered into Animal Farm by mistake. It felt a bit like Tolkien was labouring a political point too obviously at that point. But from the story point of view, within the confines of Middle Earth, that part of the story was still absorbing, complex and heroic like the rest of the book.

I appreciated Eowyn's part in the book - woman as a hero, sensitively portrayed. I like how her character has a whole story of its own, though she is not one of the Fellowship.

Merry and Pippin really emerge as characters in this last book - it takes them a while, but once they do, they are truly awesome.

I like how once Frodo achieves his quest, he is spent, and becomes just a shadow for the rest of the book. It's sad, and more realistic than a 'happily ever after' would have been. His burden truly was too great, and the wound he took really did have a lasting effect. This works so well, and takes the story far beyond any last hint of the 'fairytale'.

The scene at Mount Doom is magnificent. I gasped out loud while reading it. The Gollum event is predictable yet inevitable. The eagles coming afterwards, despite their use earlier in the book and Gandalf's role, still feel a bit too much like deus ex machina for my liking, but that's a petty argument. I loved it. All of it. I don't really want to find any fault with it.

I feel like saying I'm sorry I took so long to discover the incredibleness of LoTR, but actually, I think this was the exact right time for me to discover it. Greater than fantasy, much more than escapism, vastly huge and yet masterfully intimate, this is indeed a work of genius.

Herrlicher Kitsch!: Dieses Buch ist pulp fiction auf höchsten Niveau.
Nicht mehr und nicht weniger.
Es ist ein Klassiker der Trivialliteratur. Der Leser erfährt auf einfache Weise Dinge aus der germanischen Sagenwelt. Schon dass ist doch in der heutigen Fernsehwelt ein Erfolg.Es ist doch erfreulich, dass Schüler Tolkien lesen,anstatt GZSZ im Fernsehen als das Maß aller Dinge anzusehen.
Bei der alten Übersetzung erfährt man sogar die Schönheit der deutschen Sprache.Am Ende ist es ein wenig lang geraten.

The Return of the King is far and away the best book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In this third chapter, the events of the other two books come together as the land of middle earth is plunged into all out war between Sauron and his orcs and the pitifully fragile humans. Frodo continues his journy to destroy the ring of power while facing trickery from the devlish Gollum/Smeagol. Meanwhile, Sauron is putting together an army to destroy all humans left, focusing on Gondor's capital of Minas Tirith, and with the help of his Nazgul Witch-King, almost succeds in doing so. However, just in the nick of time, Aragorn shows up with an undead army to overwhelm Sauron's forces and restore hope that men will survive, as Frodo grows ever closer to destroying thier source of pain. Finally, after a long and ardous journey, Frodo makes it to Mount Doom, where he casts the ring into its fire, destroying it once and for all. After this success, Aragorn is rightfully named king and Frodo and his hobbit friends return to the shire, only to discover it has been taken over by Saruman, an evil wizard. After a brief uprising they manage to take back thier home, and they can finally live in peace. While the movie adaptaion of this book is ceartainly very good, it leaves much left out, and anyone who was intrested by the movie should definetley read the book as it is truly a classic

The final part of The Lord of the Rings recounts the last stand of the forces of good against the Dark Lord and the rebirth of hope in the decimated Middle Earth. The world of Middle Earth is as richly described by Tolkien as ever, and the appendices provide those truly interested in the world a massive amount of back story and guides that those only here for the main story can safely skip. The diverse set of characters is as rich as ever, and the many separate plots all come to satisfying conclusions. The narration of the audio book, done by Rob Inglis, brings the characters to life with interesting voices, although some may find the singing of the songs within the book to be rather unpleasant to the ears. This trilogy has endured for a long while, and the strength of this final volume shows just how powerful a story it is that will remain on many "must read" lists for time to come. ( )

The Return of the King is a fantasy/adventure novel. It is about a war that is going on between the evil Sauron and the rest of Middle-Earth (the location the book takes place in). Sauron is searching for the Ring of Power, and the rest of Middle-Earth is trying to destroy it. They have sent out Frodo, the main character, and eight others to make sure the job gets done. Sam, Frodo's used-to-be-gardner and now-companion, and Frodo are in Mordor (the country where Sauron is). They are trying to get the Ring to the place where it was made to get rid of it once and for all, while the seven others of the original Company are attempting to buy Sam and Frodo time to get it done.
I really enjoyed this book. It is well written, but one thing bugs me. It is how he chooses to tell the different points of view in the story. In Book Five (the first part of the Return of the King) the story is not focused on Sam and Frodo, and in Book Six it is. When it the point of view "switched" back to Frodo and Sam, it was like going back in time which really confused me. The book also uses old English, which did not bother me but it could bug others. The plot was interesting and it had a few interesting twists. Overall, this was a very good book. ( )

This book is the third book of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord Of The Rings", and it's amazing!
I like this book because it adds a lot of detail and has very interesting characters, like their races, such as an elf, hobbit, or dwarf.
This book has a lot of imagry in it, and it commonly adds a few events that you would not expect (such as in the previous books, those who have read, you know what I am talking about).
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes fiction, a descriptive, moderately challenging book with a good plot. ( )

A must read for all epic fantasy fans. Tolkein does and amazinf job in ending his three part series. He ties up all loose ends, but still leaves much to the imgaination. I thought the ending (all the stuff with the Shire) was a bit unnecessary but fun to read. ( )

What can you add in a review of this classic? A pity that five stars are the limit here... ( )

perfection pure and simple, should have 6 stars. enough said. ( )

Saved by being so incredibly (unintentionally) gay. ( )

So many books are compared to the Lord of The Rings and Tolkien - but there is only one Tolkien, and this is his best. A seminal work. Tolkien established the fantasy genre - creating something new out of a fusion of what we would have called mythology and fairy tales before his day. He created a whole new mythology - everything else is just derivative works. ( )

Absolutely brilliant!! ( )

JRR Tolkien was a literary genius in how he created his world. He didn't just place characters in a fantasy land, he came up with time lines, family trees, Middle-Earth history, and a whole language. It boggles the mind. I am a struggling writer -struggling to get the words out -and I have no idea how someone can do what he did. I find myself lost in thought, plotting my own characters, but they live in the real world. I wonder how Mr. Tolkien spent his day. I'm sure there's info out there on his life, I just haven't pursued it.

I love the book, I was sad that it was over. I wanted to continue with life in the Shire. I want to know more about Merry, Pippin and dear Sam. I didn't quite cry, but I came close.

Let me gush over Sam. For one thing, he was masterfully played by Sean Astin in the film. Genius casting there. The last half of this book was Sam's story. It had started out as Frodo's. Frodo had the ring, it was his job to destroy it, and everyone else was supporting. By the third book, Frodo was lost. The ring had taken him away and he was but a shell. The story was told through Sam's eyes and it was beautiful. Sam was the one who kept them going. His devotion to his Master Frodo is as lovely as any tale of friendship there is. ( )

I really can't add anything to any discussion about The Lord of the Rings series that hasn't already probably been said twice before. Grand and epic in it's scope and telling, The Return of the King is the final book in the series. I'm always impressed by the story, but I can't help but always feel that the ending seemed a little too easy for everyone involved. Of course, the emotion that comes through in the story is just as strong as ever, but this latest reading left me wanting more from the ending; something a little more tangible in the evil forces that threaten Middle-Earth. Maybe I've read it one too many times now, but the enigmatic nature of Sauron just seemed a little, well, too enigmatic for me this time. Still, you can't deny that this is one fine piece of fantasy literature. ( )

If _The Two Towers_ started the tradition of the dark middle story, _The Return of the King_ started that of the idiotic third part -- although mercifully without muppet crimelords, savage insurgent teddy-bears, highly unexpected sisters, or protocol droids.

The first half of the book is just insultingly obvious melodrama heaped on insultingly obvious melodrama (does anyone seriously expect Sauron to _win_? I certainly didn't, though I almost reached the point of rooting for him), and as a bonus throws into sharp relief the moral problems with having an entire species of sapient beings who it's just fine to slaughter. The first five books of the second half are an impressive stylistic accomplishment: Tolkien sets out to write a narrative that it's almost impossible to slog through, matching Frodo and Sam's experience, and succeeds. A little too well, I suspect...

The denoument in the south is pretty unsatisfactory, but we probably all know by now that Tolkien originally had rather different matrimonial plans for the new king of Gondor. (Hint: Who does Eowyn fall in love with at first sight?) The Scouring of the Shire, however, _works_ -- almost well enough to redeem the rest of the book. _Here_ is a conflict that he really knows how to do, and it feels exceptionally solid, credible, all-around good -- and the reader realizes that maybe he didn't want the smug little hobbits to get what they had coming to them after all. Between the miserable, and self-sustained though arguably not self-inflicted, condition of Saruman, and the all-around awkward position of the hobbits, this is a chapter that gives the lie to claims that _The Lord of the Rings_ is entirely black and white.

Of course, the rest of this book really *is* entirely black and white, but even so...

(On revisiting this, I got carried away: I'm not reviewing the book, I'm reviewing its fans. The "so-so" rating stands -- this really is the weakest part of LotR, it goes too far into melodrama too often -- but it's not quite worthy of this kind of savaging. It is strange that Tolkien went ahead with the orcs; they bothered him, too, but he never went for the right way out, of admitting that his characters were wrong...) ( )

I'd read "The Lord of the Rings" back when I was in high school, so a lot of the particulars of the tale had faded away over time. Not the overall story and the basic characters, but certainly some of the minutiae, minor characters and plot meanderings. Between the first reading and this second, Peter Jackson's movie trilogy hit the theaters (and the video market), and had - by reason of the movie's beauty, detail and wonderful casting - almost supplanted the original story in my mind. In fact, I can no longer remember what my original book set looked like - this second set has Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom and Viggo Mortensen on each of its covers.

Reading the book again after all this time had some surprising awakenings - I'd forgotten that Frodo was supposed to be in his 40's when the adventure unfolded, and I'd forgotten that both Sam and Frodo faced down Shelob in the tunnel together, not Frodo by himself. I’d forgotten that Saruman died not in Isengard but in the Shire. And I'd almost forgotten Tom Bombadil entirely.

But having now once again enjoyed both the book and the movie in fairly close proximity as an adult, they almost feel like two separate but parallel entities. Yes, the movie streamlined some of the action into a more cohesive, forward-moving whole. And yes, Tom Bombadil disappeared. But I can now see why Peter Jackson made the choices he made. Tom, an enigmatic, mysterious being, isn't even fully understood by the book's main characters during the time they spent with him - and discussions of his nature and identity take place among Tolkien scholars to this day. Is he the Green Man? Is he a Dionysian deity? Pan? Is he a minor or major god? Trying to translate that level of mystery into a film had to be nearly impossible, particularly as he accomplishes for the storyline what the fellowship's time with Galadrial did, on many levels - even in the book you can see the redundancy of the two encounters. If even Tolkien had difficulty explaining him, I can see why Peter Jackson didn't want to make the attempt. The movie would have gone on forever if he'd tried to add the Bombadil encounter.

Some of the characters and relationships aren’t quite as black and white as they were in the film (Denethor and Eowyn are examples), and Merry & Pippen were nowhere as entertaining in the book as they were in the film. Some of the film’s best moments aren’t given the same weight in the book (the flaming beacons passing from mountain top to mountain top in the film sent chills up the spine; in the book they aren’t given quite the same emotional impact).

Basically, I’m of the opinion now that you can enjoy both the book(s) and the film, each in its own right – both are pretty awesome. ( )

In the final installment of the trilogy, Aragorn accepts his destiny and brings Sauron's second war to a close as Sam helps Frodo to destroy the One Ring.

The third installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and a masterful work. Enjoyable from beginning to end, and so much better than I remembered. We were on a LOTR kick all summer - books, movies, and LOTR Risk. ( )

This book has been reviewed plenty by finer people than I, but I will say that I love these stories because they give so much food for thought without pinning you down to one idea. A Christian can read them and find wonderful parallels and meanings, but so can a Pagan, or an Environmentalist, or a Historian.
This final book is the triumphant end. Where all things work together for good. I love that sort of ending. ( )

If I could take back the Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring and make them 4's rather than 5 stars...I might, but I might not. Who knows? Because I'm not going to go back and take back what I've already given. But this is definitely my favorite book of the Lord of the Rings series. ( )

The final book is extremely psychological. It really gets into Frodo’s mindset as he is traveling. The action ramps up with the coming of the war and its dramatic conclusion. ( )

The third and final part of the trilogy comprising of books 5 and 6 as originally written and, at least in this edition, a substantial Appendix - fully a third of the page count. If you've got this far then you've come to grips with the language, you've loved or skipped the songs (not many more to go) and you just want to see how it ends.

Book 5 is perhaps the most exciting part of the story. Once again it deals solely with the fates of the companions. War is coming to the human stronghold of Minas Tirith, although no longer ruled by the kings of old, it is still their citadel overseen by the powerful Steward Denathor father of Boromir and Faramir. He is upset over the loss of one son and not pleased with the conduct of the other. The arrival of Gandalf and Pippin on Shadowfax is one ray for the forces of Light, but Aragorn must lead the others, and poor Merry is almost overlooked again. Having defeated the first and least of the hosts of Mordor at grievious cost, thoughts turn to Frodo and Sam. Aragorn decides to challenge the Black Gate itself in order to clear their way.

Book six opens with Sam desperate to find and rescue his master after the terrors of Shelob's lair - he was unconscious not dead! Together they crawl, creap and grovel their way thorugh yet more stoney mountains. Thank goodness for the lack of swamps! Until at last in a very contrived sense of timing, (a hallmark of the trilogy) the plot is resolved at the Cracks of Doom. Fortunetly for cynics everywhere Frodo is not too heroic. There is a great reference back to the Hobbit for sharp eyed readers. Yet another example of the terrific detail that makes LoTR such a definative work. Merry could only overcome the King of Angmar with the blade picked up by chance in the barrows some 1000 pages earlier, yet little reference is made to this. Whence Eowyn came by such a blade is one of the few (very very few) plotholes.

There are many discussions on the meaning of the final chapters, but whatever else they may be, they are certainly a definative ending with all the loose ends tied up (apart from the Entings - what was seen on the moors and discussed in the Green Dragon way back at book 1?). This is a referreshing change form many more modern writers who prefer to leave the ends sufficiently loose for future sequels. JRR and no plans to write any more. The appendix is fascinating, and if you thoroughly enjoy it, then you should to go on and read the various works of Christopher Tolkein - The Silmarillion and all the rest. If however partial fragments of old history and re-written and changed plot evolutions, tales of descendants etc leave you cold then you can fearlessly skip the whole lot.

At times it is a very sad tale. At times magnificant and elsewhere boring. Much like life. Read it, and revel in the artistry of a story and world written and composed over a lifetime. You won't find the like again. ( )

The last book in the lord of the rings trilogy is another great book, the end is action packed with wonderful battles and memorable moments, everything is concluded and you won't be disappointed. ( )