The Two Towers (LOTR #2)

This is book two of the Lord of The Rings trilogy and debatably the least enjoyable by one millionth of one percent! It's unbelievably brilliant.

This is the joining link between The Fellowship of The Ring (1) and The Return of The King (3) and hard to follow at first because of how logistically complex it is. The fellowship of companions split up and sprawl across the map in different directions, meeting new characters and allies along the way that are essential to the overall plot, which can get confusing. The Two Towers is the essential world building aspect of LOTR and the glue that brings it all together. It is also some people's favourite because of these logistical complexities!

Character similarities don't always help, especially initial confusion bet Saruman and Sauron, and you can't read this book as a standalone story as it wouldn't make a lot of sense, but it's the most widespread and thought provoking of all three volumes.

We find out what it's like to be truly lost, on our own, without hope and vulnerable. The need to keep on going, trusting in friends and putting faith in your own strength and resolve to see things through.

There is a section in Macbeth by William Shakespeare where the forest encroaches on the castle as a fantastical military coup. The tree-creature ents in this novel make that tactic look like child's play even though LOTR is technically a YA narrative. Shakespeare has his charms but The Two Towers is on a different level.

All three books are enormously endearing, cheering and rewarding and I recommend them to everyone.