One of the worst performances in my life.

The story of course is fascinating, however, it's sullied by the horrific and terrible performance of the human narrating it. His voices are an insult, his songs make me want to fall down dead. There is no other audio option; it's either this one or nothing... So if you really want to listen to this book you have to go with this one. Brace yourself for the horrific journey.

17 people found this helpful

How can I review this?

What did you like most about The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Volume 1?

The Two Towers is darker and more exciting than The Fellowship of the Ring. Equally well written, it is part of a modern great.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Volume 1?

It is all brilliant!

Would you listen to another book narrated by Rob Inglis?

Yes, as long as he didn't sing. The songs were a little painfully cringe inducing to me.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I always love this book.

Any additional comments?

I wish that I had never read it so that I could discover it all over again.

17 people found this helpful

One 'Book' To Rule Them All!

WOW!! Absolutely superb! A truly amazing book, from start to finish. The Lord of the Rings movies, really don't even scratch the surface. This is, without doubt, a masterpiece. Excellently written, and narrated with style.

If you've watched the movies, and think you know what Lord of the Rings is about, think again. Get this book, and you will understand what I mean.

Absolutely brilliant!

16 people found this helpful

awesome just awesome

really great, read brilliantly with excellent voices, such a versatile performer, rob inglis has a unique talent

14 people found this helpful

Great story but flawed narrator

Rob Inglis has quite a mellow voice so it's easy enough to listen to, but I didn't find his narration to be top-class. Too often he puts an incongruous emphasis on characters' words or feelings which kept pulling me up short. It's as though he sometimes forgot the context and just read the words any-old-how. I've listened to the complete set of LoTR and Hobbit audiobooks narrated by him, and it's the same in all of them. Quite an irritating flaw, and one which marks them down from a full 5-star listen.

11 people found this helpful

Action Packed!

Story – 5/5

If you have been waiting for the action, this is the book where a lot of it starts happening – epic battles, minor scouting skirmishes, chases – it will keep you hooked from start to finish. We establish new races and army factions from middle earth, all as detailed as the last. The story is also split now amongst 3 different story arcs, each just as interesting as the next, which allows us to see the bigger picture of the war in midde-earth

As usual, Tolkien’s prose is superb. He creates such a complex and detailed world without it being taxing for the reader. As the godfather of modern fantasy, this series is a must for all fantasy fans, and far superior to the films if you have already enjoyed those. There is so much more to learn and understand that the films had to skip over. A well deserved 5/5 stars – for it’s influence on the genre alone if nothing else.


Performance – 4/5

Rob Inglis does a very good job with the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. He describes a detailed and complex world so well, making it an incredibly easy listen. I did feel that his character voices could have been a little more distinguishable, but his acting of them was done extremely well.


Overall – 4.5/5

9 people found this helpful

Dealings With Wizards

I really like Peter Jackson's films, and they offer an invaluable point of comparison in terms of narrative flow and dynamics of the story, and how those narrative goals of the author or director are achieved in two different media. Sure, the films deviate from the books, but I'm not interested in fidelity in itself – only when it makes for good cinema. The same goes with books based on films.

It's a simple question of translation, really. Howard Goldblatt, who has translated many Chinese works into English, among them Mo Yan, once said in an interview that when one is reading Mo Yan in English, one is really reading Goldblatt. I think it saves me many a night's sleep to see this difference between one medium and another, and the problems of translation inherent in each.

The crossroads of "The Fellowship of the Ring" and "The Two Towers" is a very meaty moment for comparisons. Jackson decided to include the first chapter of this book in the first film despite also dwelling more on the Uruk-hai attack and Boromir's role in it. Tolkien on the other hand lets Frodo and Sam get away and end there. The very beginning is brilliant, the remaining members of the fellowship doing some detective work tracing the tracks.

Both solutions work, I think, since they are the two grand climaxes at the intersection of the two books. On one hand, it is Frodo's escape, Sam's loyalty and their friendship that will face almost certain death, just the two of them; on the other, it's the tragic effect the ring has to the world of men, their dominions pestered by orc attacks, and the growing influence of dark creatures in the land. Here again the two worlds, that of hobbits and of men, meet. Jackson's solution works in filmic terms because it sets in motion the two escapades that dominate the following films, but Tolkien's is more intimate to my mind, and the opening of "The Two Towers" is very powerful indeed.

As for the rest of the book, the highlight for me has always been the confrontation with Saruman. Although I understand the reasoning behind the film version in introducing Saruman so early in "The Fellowship of the Ring", in Tolkien it's dramatically a very powerful moment when we arrive at Isengard to confront him, since we've been hearing so much about him already. He's a compelling character more than anything else, and considering that his army has already been defeated and his Isengard is in ruins, he remains a threatening presence to the very end. It is, in some ways, an anticlimax, sure, to see him already in the jaws of defeat, and I remember longing to have seen him at the peak of his powers.

Other nice moments is especially the heist of the orcs, and the hobbits' sojourn through Fangorn, but I'm finding it very difficult to get fired up by the Rohan storyline, including the battle of Helm's Deep, which, thankfully, is not as detailed as in the films.

The story revolving around the Palantír is also brilliant, evocative literature. This is where Tolkien's route of keeping Saruman from us so far pays off doubly, since he hasn't had to reveal the Palantír's function to at all, not even mention the whole thing. It's a wonderful, mysterious object, and Pippin's descent into incurable and mad curiosity becomes deeper and so much more dangerous because we are not quite sure what the thing does.

The last paragraph is, as usual, devoted to Inglis. It's an admirable feat to keep such a narrative together with such a multitude of different characters. He makes it all sound so easy and natural, which itself is a task unimaginably difficult to pull off properly. A great narrator.

Off to Book IV!

8 people found this helpful

What an epic

I'm about to read the final in the trilogy having so far cramming this and the first part back to back (as it were).

The other day, I discovered something quite shocking when I watched the Peter Jackson film of the same name. Before I started these books I loved the films, every single one - quite prepared to row with my grown up children when they borrowed the (extended) dvds without asking.

I'm sorry Pete but I can't watch them now, without misgivings, the books have thoroughly spoiled me. Extended box sets - bah!! A lot of actors flashing pleasing faces and big, doleful eyes at you. Pah!

...Okay, the wargs are slavering and wicked scary and the olyphants are dazzling, prehistoric looking beasts! Not to mention I would do anything to fly on a giant eagle and give Shadowfax a sugar lump - I still love your animals, my man and your fighting uruk hai!

Oh, but give me sweet, tender, loyal Sam and stinking, clammy, malevolent Gollum and a terrain that I have walked barefoot in alongside Frodo (bearing that burden) any day.

7 people found this helpful

Brilliant!

This is brilliant to hear, I do not have the time to read the book but hearing it allows me to work and enjoy the tales! It also helps because now I have a reference point for the pronunciation of certain names and places!

7 people found this helpful

Great series

Great story, this book has everything, What a cliff hanger!

Bring on The Return of the King!

6 people found this helpful