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Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
J.K. Rowling | 2014 | Children, Fiction & Poetry
5
9.1 (271 Ratings)
Book Rating
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Ok
I must be one of only people in the world that didn't really enjoy the book. When I first read it I really struggled to get past the first couple of chapters as I just couldn't get on with the style of writing and felt that there were so many other better books that I could be reading (I was very much into epic fantasy authors at the time and was reading Trudi Canavan). I tried it again when I was older and did end up finishing it this time around but I still only thought it was ok and could have done with being edited another time or two before publishing it.

I thought that the premise was really interesting and the world was well constructed but it didn't seem to flow as well as I thought it could have, some of the characters were very 2 dimensional and some of the events didn't really seem to be necessary for the progression of the story.

Overall, it wasn't a bad book but I just didn't enjoy it.
  
The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings, #3)
The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings, #3)
J.R.R. Tolkien | 1955 | Fiction & Poetry, Science Fiction/Fantasy
9
8.9 (34 Ratings)
Book Rating
Completing Tolkien's genre-defining (and dominating) epic fantasy, the Return of the King follows the Lord of the Rings trilogy to it's conclusion. With the company sundered and The Ring being carried by a reluctant Samwise against the might of Mordor it seems that all may indeed be lost.

The Lord of the Rings is certainly a long read in its entirety, but this is where everything that has been building comes together. Cleverly switching between the plot strands, from the faded grandeur of Gondor to the desperate crossing of Mordor to huge battles this has everything. And the returning hobbits find both them and the Shire have been changed, possibly forever.

The final ending of the book (even though Tolkien originally wrote another chapter) is a superb piece of understated melancholy with the ending of the Third Age and the clear message that all things change, even good things don't last forever. The bittersweet ending is one of the things that makes this one of the greatest works of fiction ever written, in any genre.