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The Lord of The Rings has been on my radar for many years. It’s definitely one of the greatest fantasy classics, if not the greatest, so as a fan of the genre I wanted to get around to reading it at some point and get enchanted by the magic of Middle-Earth, like millions of other readers throughout the decades. Now, at the end of this journey, after turning over the last page of "The Return of the King" I can confidently say that my expectations were exceeded and I loved every page of this fantastic trilogy.

Tolkien had a great gift of crafting a world full of detailed mythology, great wonders and noble characters going into a battle not only against the forces of evil in general, but also emotions like dread, hopelessness or betrayal. That is to say, despite all the incredible magic, the characters feel real. The hobbits, the men, the elves, the wizards – even if they have a great deal of history behind them, even if they know the ancient words, even if they hold powerful artifacts, they are ultimately driven by their selflessness, aspirations, despair or greed.

I also admire how every journey undertaken in the book holds its ground if terms of travelled distance, time and supplies consumed by the adventurers. It’s really immersive and adds weight to the obstacles characters stumble upon on the way to their destination. It’s not about just moving from point A to point B, but solving troubles along the way, changing paths, avoid being spotted, encountering fascinating inhabitants of the land – all of this playing out in a way that makes you feel like a part of the company, sharing their problems and their path.

I think these aspects are what makes The Lord of The Rings such a beloved series, which I too, will hold close to my heart.

Lastly, I’m really glad that Tolkien took time to give us some sort of closure at the end of The Return of The King. Many fantasy books end shortly after the concluding events, with some short epilogue at best, but here we got to see what the Fellowship of the Ring was up to after fighting against Sauron, we got “The Scouring of the Shire”, “Grey Havens” and reading those final chapters really made me at peace, for which I’m grateful.

The Lord of The Rings has been on my radar for many years. It’s definitely one of the greatest fantasy classics, if not the greatest, so as a fan of the genre I wanted to get around to reading it at some point and get enchanted by the magic of Middle-Earth, like millions of other readers throughout the decades. Now, at the end of this journey, after turning over the last page of "The Return of the King" I can confidently say that my expectations were exceeded and I loved every page of this fantastic trilogy.

Tolkien had a great gift of crafting a world full of detailed mythology, great wonders and noble characters going into a battle not only against the forces of evil in general, but also emotions like dread, hopelessness or betrayal. That is to say, despite all the incredible magic, the characters feel real. The hobbits, the men, the elves, the wizards – even if they have a great deal of history behind them, even if they know the ancient words, even if they hold powerful artifacts, they are ultimately driven by their selflessness, aspirations, despair or greed.

I also admire how every journey undertaken in the book holds its ground if terms of travelled distance, time and supplies consumed by the adventurers. It’s really immersive and adds weight to the obstacles characters stumble upon on the way to their destination. It’s not about just moving from point A to point B, but solving troubles along the way, changing paths, avoid being spotted, encountering fascinating inhabitants of the land – all of this playing out in a way that makes you feel like a part of the company, sharing their problems and their path.

I think these aspects are what makes The Lord of The Rings such a beloved series, which I too, will hold close to my heart.

Lastly, I’m really glad that Tolkien took time to give us some sort of closure at the end of The Return of The King. Many fantasy books end shortly after the concluding events, with some short epilogue at best, but here we got to see what the Fellowship of the Ring was up to after fighting against Sauron, we got “The Scouring of the Shire”, “Grey Havens” and reading those final chapters really made me at peace, for which I’m grateful.

One of the things that I absolutely adore about "The Shadow of the Torturer" is definitely the setting. The story takes place in the far future, after humans built enormous cities, walls, citadels and most importantly spaceships that could reach other stars. It's mostly a mystery of what happened since then, but during the timeline of the book we're left with a planet that's full of marvelous technologies, bordering on magic and a class of nobility that can still somehow utilize it. Yet, the vast majority of the population are simple folk, cast back to an equivalent of the middle ages, who don't understand the world around them at all and to them, technology is more akin to myth and legend.

The story itself follows Severian - an apprentice in the guild of torturers, who due to some certain events leaves his home to perform his work somewhere else (I'm trying to spoil too much alright?). He sees many wonders along his path of life and he's trying to understand the world around him, but in the end he experiences first hand how cruel life can be.

Now, I think the prologue itself is quite amazing, but after that the book lost a lot of its charm in my eyes. The characters Severian meets since then are rather flat and just leave (or die) after fulfilling their purpose. Somehow Severian ends up with multiple lovers and he's a guy who just can't look at a woman and not desire them, which I guess can be natural, but I can't help but cringe on such descriptions in most books. It made my remember why I disliked the Witcher. Another issue is that the language in the book is stylized as ancient. It means there are a ton of Latin and archaic words, plus a lot more made-up ones. I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing, it enhances the atmosphere, but it did make the book hard to follow.

Overall I quite liked "The Shadow of the Torturer", all things considered, but I'm still not sure if I'm going to come back to the series.

(Read as part of a book club) I'm conflicted about "The Lost Bookshop". Looking back at it, it's not bad and I was able to finish it without giving up. However, as it usually is, a book that you didn't have high hopes for, but it turns out okayish leaves a better impression than one which you really liked the premise of, but it falls short. "The Lost Bookshop" is the latter for me. Let me explain.

The book follows a story across two different timelines, which are interconnected. About 100 years in the past there is Opaline - a woman running away from home and his abusive brother to work as a book dealer, traveling around, while being hunted, trying to find a place for herself. In the present the story follows two people. The first one is Martha - a woman who also runs away from her home, from an abusive husband, to work as a servant for a mysterious character. The other person is Henry - an university graduate, hunting for a lost manuscript, one that he suspects, could've been stored in the titular lost bookshop.

Now, I thought that the premise of the book is amazing. However, my problem with the execution is that, the bookshop is not that important really. 4/5th of the book just follows the character's intertwined stories and, while it has some amazing or really terrifying moments, most of it plays out like a telenovela. The characters are pretty one-dimensional. There are plenty of serious topics involved, but none truly developed. Hearts are constantly being broken, everyone has to get in terms with their pasts, there is love, kissing, sex, abuse, murder, constant misunderstandings, that made me roll my eyes in so many cases. While I understand that relationships aren't that easy in real life, especially when there are elements like past abuse involved, I just couldn't stomach most of this drama that just dragged on and on. Another issue is that you can usually see the plot twists coming from the mile away, since there is an insight from the past and many patterns repeat themselves. I'm disappointed because it could've really been a better book.

Edit: My book club came to the almost unanimous conclusion that the book is mostly trash, so it's not just a me problem