It took me so long to read this book! I started it December 2001 when I first moved to Minnesota and the movies were about to come out. I figured I needed to read the LOTR books before seeing the movies, and had to read this before I could read them. I read the first 10 pages and couldn’t get into it, and set it down for about a year and a half. When I finally picked it up again, I was drawn into the story more and enjoyed it a great deal. It set up the LOTR Trilogy well and prepared me to read those books as well as see the movies. I know quite a few people have said that the books are poorly written, but I didn’t get this sense at all. It was an enjoyable story.