Synopsis:
Frodo and his Companions of the Ring have been beset by danger during their quest to prevent the Ruling Ring from falling into the hands of the Dark Lord by destroying it in the Cracks of Doom. They have lost the wizard, Gandalf, in a battle in the Mines of Moria. And Boromir, seduced by the power of the Ring, tried to seize it by force. While Frodo and Sam made their escape, the rest of the company was attacked by Orcs. Now they continue the journey alone down the great River Anduin—alone, that is, save for the mysterious creeping figure that follows wherever they go.
Review:
Friendship, hope, resilience, faith, justice, and bravery; these days, good-hearted with no grey morality characters are much easier for fantasy readers to dismiss. I totally get it; this type of characters and stories have been done more than a million times in fantasy stories, and readers—myself included—sometimes prefer more complexity. However, I also personally think that these kinds of characters are still much needed in the stories we devour. Maybe even more than ever. The Two Towers, being the second part of The Lord of the Rings, touches upon these themes by transporting its readers to an old and familiar ground, which I highly enjoyed reading. I’m genuinely surprised by how fast and immersed I am with reading The Two Towers. To be honest, I never expected to find myself compelled from reading most of Tolkien’s work, but I certainly did with this one. This is surprising to me because The Two Towers have often been mentioned as being even slower and tedious than The Fellowship of the Ring by several fans of the series. There’s something about The Two Towers that worked reasonably well with me. To be clear, there’s no clear beginning and ending with this volume, but that’s also why what the characters faced in The Two Towers resonated; they’re doing whatever they can with the hope that their faith towards one another will be rewarded. Many people in this world say and believe that true faith is achieved once you believe in something that you can’t see with your eyes. After what happened at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring, the main characters are plagued with doubts on whether they can succeed in completing the journey they set out to do. And yet they persevere. Honestly, what they had was only the faith that everything will maybe turn out alright if they do everything they respectively can do the best.
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