Things I enjoy about this book: I love the narrators moments of speaking to thereader, there's a great balance of description and plot pace, the adventures are all entertaining.
The one thing that I think let's it down is that you are introduced so early on to 15 great characters but only 3 really get given any personality or purpose, a couple of the others get a notable feature but most are interchangeable and seem only to be there for the numbers. I would have liked a bit more fleshing out of the others or simply fewer of them, but then who am I to criticise Tolkien :D