The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

 

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien is the prequel to the epic Lord of the Rings saga.  I have never read any of these books, despite my love of fantasy for the same reason I've read very little Isaac Asimov, despite his foundational (ha! I made an accidental pun) work in science fiction.  That reason is that these books are desperately boring.  It's like white men got together and decided that they should write books in which women don't exist and old white men/wizards just go around making all the decisions and being in charge without explaining anything to anyone.

But I hadn't actually read Tolkien, so I was just going based on my gut instinct about the guy and from what I heard from other people. I decided I should suck it up and go visit Middle Earth and see if it could possibly live up to the hype. For Christmas, my husband got me a boxed set that included The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King, and I vowed to read them all in 2021. I don't know if I'll be able to keep this promise. 

I know I'm going to be accused of a large degree of heresy for this, but it did not live up to its beloved reputation. 

Bilbo the Hobbit is essentially kidnapped by some dwarves and Gandalf the Wizard to steal treasure from a dragon named Smaug. This the tale of derring-do as they go on this grand adventure.

The Good

There's a dragon.

I can see how Tolkien is responsible for the development of many fantasy tropes of the day.  The epic scene setting, the all-knowing wizard, and development of different races are all things you see repeated today. As a matter of fact, the very first scene was so reminiscent of the first scene in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone that I knew that J.K. Rowling had a lot to thank Tolkien for.  

The Bad

Bilbo is a whiny jerk.  He's on this epic journey and he just incessantly complains and feels sorry for himself. On one hand, I get it. He was roped into this journey and he's a bit of a homebody. But, dear lord, this is a children's book and if children learn the lesson that when you're doing something you don't want to do, all you should do is whinge, that is disappointing.

I feel like there was a lot of complaining about how there was too much wandering around in the woods in the last Harry Potter book. This book was entirely wandering around in the woods after a not great purpose (stealing!) and I just thought it meandered and for a brief period of time I was reading this book with the sole purpose of putting myself to sleep at night.

The Ugly

The stereotypes. The lack of women. I just can't with this book.

So I'm going into The Lord of Rings proper with a bit of a chip on my shoulder, my friends. I respect Tolkien for his important contributions to literature, but I don't think I like him.