The final book of the trilogy has the fellowship split in two, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli besieged in a castle as the dark forces approach, Gandalf resurrected and trying to mount a defense, and Sam and Frodo separated deep in Sauron’s land. At the darkest hours of the Second age of Middle Earth (Tolkien’s fictitious world) the quest to defeat Sauron seems its most hopeless, the powers of good shine through, and return the king (a surprise) to the throne.
Review
The Return of the King is always a bit of a relief. Finally, I get to see bad old Sauron take a beating and go down in flames, Gandalf is back, Strider gets his due, and I know that Middle Earth is safe. At the end of the Trilogy, I always feel pretty good about the world—it’s refreshing to see good triumph unquestionably above evil, and reading an author writing in the romantic style is always a sure bet that the world will be in fairly good order by the last page. Having said that, I now have a real hankering to go re-read the trilogy, and perhaps pre-order the DVD.