Review: The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is one of the books I wanted to read for a long time. Classics of the genre that influenced several of the PC games I played, films I watched and books I read (when I had more time for such).

Beautiful language, epic story, diverse and rich world of Middle-Earth.

Interestingly, I kept on recalling my lectures on semiotics from the university times - and Vladimir Propp's standard elements of a fairy tale in particular - while reading Tolkien. And indeed - on one hand, it is nothing more than a simple fairy tale, with elements such as the battle of the Good and the Bad, quests, helpers, passes etc. On the other hand, this is probably why it can be called a masterpiece of a genre: Tolkien uses standard elements of a tale in a skillfully systematic and thorough way, enriched by countless colourful details.

And I cannot help noting after having read the book - although it has nothing to do with the book itself - that the film trilogy from 2000s was exceptionally good. I have probably enjoyed the film trilogy even more.

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