Years. It had been years since I read The Two Towers. Like, maybe 20? I recall it being slow as hell, ponderous, difficult to read, and full of too much poetry and songwriting. Part of that is accurate, part is completely nuts: there’s plenty of language porn for the linguifile, but the pacing is solid and so much stuff happens. There’s a ton of exposition, which is probably why it felt so slow and plodding to me, but that doesn’t actually represent bad writing or a […]

Do I really need to say anything about this book? It’s still as good as it ever was, remains completely influential to everything we interpret as high fantasy, and the language is like slipping into a warm bath.