Definitely the best book in the trilogy. To be honest, it saved the trilogy for me. I'm just not a fan of Tolkien's writing style, I find it very hard to read. However, I think after taking a few tries to finish Fellowship, I got a bit more used to it and it was easier to read the other books. I think I would probably find the first two books better on a reread. Anyway, this book was great and definitely worth powering through the first two books.