I continue to enjoy the narration of the series. It’s well done and puts a much more pleasant spin on the meandering lore dumps. I also like the camaraderie, which is a far different characterization than the movie. It’s far more clear that they treat each other like boyhood friends that they hope will last all their lives. There’s a lot less toxic masculinity bs than in modern fantasy stuff, and I like that a lot. The dialogue makes for an altogether different feeling to middle earth you’d never get from the films.

The only thing that dropped off this book for me was the ending. Tolkien loves his nice endings, as he foreshadows in both books so far. But I think the much more natural ending would have been when Sam takes up the ring. The somewhat long winded ending afterward killed the tension and emotional engagement for me. Otherwise, I’d probably have given it 5 stars instead of 4.