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 A Set To Have In Your LOTR Collection July 6, 2008
`The Hobbit' and `The Lord of the Rings Trilogy' by J.R. R. Tolkien on Audio CDs from Recorded Books. Complete and Unabridged, performed by Bob Ingles. 10 compact discs in `The Hobbit' and 46 in LOTR; more than 60 hours.
I've read `The Hobbit' and LOTR several times over the years and I've seen all the movies several times (Good News! Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro are filming `The Hobbit' and a `prequel' to LOTR to be released in 2010 and 2011). So when I saw this was available from Recorded Books I bought it. Overall I was not disappointed; there is enough here to satisfy any LOTR geek (not do disparage geekatude, in fact I admire most geeks) but the main thing I got out of it was an increased admiration for Peter Jackson's film adaptation. Jackson was a genius at cutting out the parts that added little to the overall story and in changing places and characters to make it flow better.
I could review and compare the books, the movies, and the audio CDs, however I'll just refer to the whole thing as LOTR here.
The recording at times gets very heavy and hard to follow. Just like in the books, there are long passages you'd like to skip. Unlike the books, you have a hard time doing that here. Having said that I still have to give this all 5 stars as it is worth having if you are a LOTR fan like me. Bob Ingles does a masterful job of performing all the parts, not merely reading them. At times it is confusing, but then LOTR is confusing at times; all those names that are so close always got mixed up in my mind. Also Ingles at least even tries to make those doggerel `songs' of Tolkien sufferable. Thank gawd that Jackson cut them from the movies. I did think that Ingles was channeling Dwight Frye at times when he was doing the voice of Smeagol/Gollum. But overall I was very impressed and rarely confused, or at least no more than normal.
I will say in listening to LOTR I noticed things which I never picked up on in the books or movies. For one thing Tolkien's rather snobbish acceptance of the `Divine Right of Kings' and aristocracy worship in general is much more evident when you are listening. Also I came to detect a more than small amount of racism on Tolkien's part; for example Smeagol/Gollum is referred to as `black' and the humans who join forces with Sauron are described with racial stereotypes. I suppose Tolkien can be excused as this was probably merely a reflection of his background and era, but it did get on my nerves at times. Also Tolkien seems to me to be even rather dismissive of the Hobbits as `little people' and in the end Gandalf abandons them to fight Saruman on their own; he is `too busy' off smoking his pipe and talking to Tom Bombadil (a character thankfully left out of Jackson's movies)to be bothered to help them.
But, all things being equal which they never are, if you are a fan of LOTR you'll want to spend the US$150.00 or so for this collection and listen to it all in preparation for the Jackson movies.
 LOTR Inglis April 29, 2008
Great product. Robert Inglis is really top. Despite the single narrator I am enjoying it even more than the dramatized version of the Hobbit.
Documentation very poor for what is supposed to be a gift set.
Good price even taking into account import tax and shipment 50% of local purchase even through internet!
Books are great... November 21, 2006
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I have all the parts (Fellowship of the ring, Return of the King & The Two Towers). I have loved the audiobooks.
I only have 1 problem with the audiobooks and that is when I converted the discs so I could listen to them on my ipod, the names of each track varied.
On some it ists the name of teh chapter and followed by a number(part of the chapter, others it names the book and the track number without the chapter title name, and on others it says the track number...
They should have been consistent with the track names.
Lord of the Rings for car trips? November 19, 2006
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
It's hard to add more than other reviewers have done. Most of the comments are right-on, but I think it's nice for a potential buyer to hear a lot of people voicing their opinions. This is a long set but perfect for a devoted fan. I love listening to it while doing other things or in the car on the way to work, probably also for an airplane. Rob Inglis did a great job, and while a few of the female voices are a bit odd, you soon forget about such things when you get wrapped up in the story.
He adds the right emphasis to the right parts and I think his voice is well-suited to this work. For hardcore LotR fans, it's hard to find something that meets our high expectations as this is a simply amazing work of art that will last for years - it's hard to find a voice that meets every (somewhat unreal, I think) expectation. But Rob Inglis comes extremely close.
It's a Good buy June 3, 2006
1 out of 10 found this review helpful
It is a nice audio book. It does have it's flaws though.
1. It does not offer maps or any drawings. I have searched online for some, but only find blurry copies. Considering the maps and drawings are held so highly in admiration... it kinda sucks not to have them
2. the acting of the narrator is not the greatest. There were parts when the book notes "he yells" and the narrator speaks in a calm and clear character voice. It's kind of funny sometimes.
3. many of the narrator's "attempted" character voices sound alike. All the elf kind sound the same, even the women sound like males. All the hobbits pretty much sound the same, except Sam who has this manly deep voice, which often sounds like Aragon. Often the narrator accidentally mergers one character voice into another by accident. So a hobbit will be speaking then all the sudden he sounds like Aragon or Gandolf.
But outside of that the audio book is great. These "problems" are small. Since the un-abridged reading offers the names of who is talking and their emotions that go along with it, you can make out the story just fine. It just takes a little more imagination and you can alter their voices in your head to sound like what you want to hear. I would highly reccomend it, that is until someone figures out they can get a better actor or has the mind to hire multiple actors to fulfill the part.
There is nothing funnier than hearing a deep manly voice trying to immitate a woman singing
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