Alex Arendsen > Recent Status Updates

I might stop here, this just wasn't what I was looking for. The ideas in this book are very strong but without pretty much any action or adventure to speak of it's just plain boring to read. Asimov literally had a whole universe of possibilities to add depth and interest to the story, but chose to focus largely on the numerous meetings of a growing cast of characters whose motives I cared less and less about.

The LotR parallels are hard to ignore (Mat & Perrin -> Merry & Pippin; Taren Ferry -> Brandywine; Emond's Field -> Hobbiton; Baerlon -> Bree; Bilbo & Frodo -> Tam & Rand; main guy has ominous visions of "the dark one"; Thom has Galdalf's crazy eyebrows, etc.), the characters and dialogue could be more challenging, and some of the world building components feel a bit contrived, but I'd give it a 3.5/5 so far.