...also an excellent opener for the series. I’ll review both.
The Hobbit
This book, aka the Red Book, or ’There and Back Again’ marks the momentous battle that set history’s wheels in motion.
The title protagonist is asked to assist in a quest to retrieve precious things from a dragon, things stolen from the ancestors of a coalition of stalwart dwarves. Guided by the roadworthy Gandalf, they and the reader meet many people with diverse customs and ways, see and learn a bit of the world far away from home, and face many perilous challenges.
Deep in danger, a moment of greed and spite provides a great evil the power to grow and move; and an unlikely hero puts the tiny people of Hobbiton the map of Middle Earth, in a coming age in which only invisibility will save you from the eye of Evil.
About the Author’s use of style in The Hobbit
and
The Following Trilogy
J.R.R. Tolkien, the de facto master of epic high fantasy, uses The Hobbit to introduce our world to another - Middle Earth. As told in the following trilogy (The Fellowship of the Ring; The Two Towers; The Return of the King), the Middle Earth continent faces indomitable peril from an admittedly cliche dark-god-figure; however, Tolkien’s ability to build a world with its own legends, both historic and ’in the making, ’ is graceful, colorful, and oh-so poetic.
About the Trilogy
In a world populated by various civilized (or less-than) fantasy races, some forgotten in time, some deeply rooted in unforgiven pasts, all are thrust together before your eyes as the heroes make a desperate 11th-hour race to alert the world to brace itself for disaster.
A note for Roleplaying Game Fans - there was an excellent game set in this world, called (simply) Middle-Earth Role Playing. It was created by the original publisher of the Rolemaster game (might be the same publisher who runs Rolemaster today; I haven’t followed the industry enough, alas...) It was the most inspiring gaming system I’ve ever used.