The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Book 4
So remember how all kinds of cool stuff just happened? The momentum of the story was really building at the end of the last book with Gandalf and Pippin galloping as fast as possible to Minas Tirath. Then we get book 4. Here's what happens in book 4:
Chapter 1 - Sam and Frodo walk in circles for a while, then they meet Gollum, and they walk some more.
Chapter 2 - Sam, Frodo, and Gollum walk in circles through a swamp for like 20 pages. That's it.
Chapter 3 - They have made it through the swamp and need to spend 30 pages starring at the Gate of Mordor. Seriously, they don't even walk in circles, they just sit in the sand and do nothing. Well, that's not totally fair. After 60 or so pages of insufferable boredom, we get a little bit of intrigue when Frodo threatens to put on the ring and use it to make Gollum kill himself if he doesn't help them find a way into Mordor. This is how the ring works if you missed it in the movies. It's designed to dominate others. It's a pretty harrowing moment in the books as we really get to see a darkness show itself in Frodo.
Then we get, you guessed it, MORE WALKING! Just moseying through the woods, not doing much. Finally, we get introduced to Faramir and his group of soldiers. If you've only seen the movies, you know nothing about Faramir. In the movies he is basically portrayed as the lesser son, desperate for approval. In the books, we get an extremely accomplished captain of exceptional quality. He understands that his country is not in good shape. It has been so long since truly great men have ruled that people have stopped admiring the things which armies protect (people, knowledge, art) and have become obsessed with the act of war itself. Knowledge is no longer valued as highly as prowess on the battlefield. His brother and father are part of the problem and Faramir knows this. He doesn't crave their approval like a sad little boy. Instead he recognizes the dangers of becoming obsessed with great and glorious military deeds. It's for this reason that he is able to reject the ring. He has no desire to dominate others, and he knows that such an object would only further the corruption of his people. Sam thinks that Faramir has something of a wizard in him, meaning that he is wise on the level of Gandalf or Elrond.
So Faramir continues to be awesome and lets Frodo, Sam, and Gollum go because he's not a stupid child, and our trio continues their journey south and East. They make their way up the stairs above the castle of the Ring Wraiths, and no, Frodo never tells Sam to go home because he's corrupted by Gollum and the ring. Frodo isn't a moron. He and Sam are well aware that Gollum can never be fully trusted and they even discuss their belief that he will try to betray them at some point. They have to continue to follow him at least until they get to Modor though, so they follow him into the tunnel where Shelob lives. Shelob is a giant spider, but no movie can fully convey how evil this spider is. She's the last living spawn of a creature so evil, Sauron's boss unleashed it to destroy the undying lands of Valinor. She lives only to consume and excrete darkness, and no hero has ever survived an encounter with Shelob, or even wounded her. So when Sam gets her to impale herself on Sting, it's kind of a big deal. The Orcs who find Frodo see her blood everywhere and it freaks them the hell out. It would be like somebody successfully stabbing and critically wounding the Hulk (the big green rage monster, not the middle aged wrestler).
The book ends with Sam being locked out of the Orc guard tower where Frodo has been taken prisoner. So in the end, we do get some pretty epic moments in this book, but first we have to get through 150 pages or so of almost nothing. If you are reading the LotR for the first time, you can probably skip most of this book and you won't be confused.
Faramir and Shelob - 9/10
Everything else - 0/10 because reading about people wandering in circles through a desolate landscape is exactly has boring as it sounds.
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