The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien

Here it is, as promised, the second book in the Lord of the Rings series. At the end of the last book we left just as Frodo and Sam decided to spare the other travelers in the company and go to Mordor alone, and so this book is divided in half: the first part deals with Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, Merry, and Pippin after Sam and Frodo leave, and the second part deals with Sam and Frodo on the road to Mordor. Merry and Pippin are kidnapped by Orcs and get mixed up with some tree-people called Ents. Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas search for the abducted hobbits, meet Gandalf (who has come back to life and is more powerful), and then the whole troop gets involved with the defense of the Hornburg, the fortress of Rohan, against the army of Isengard, which is ruled by the traitor wizard Saruman, and then take Isengard itself with the help of the Ents. As for Sam and Frodo, they meet Gollum who agrees to guide them to Mordor, but is very sneaky, and along the way they meet Faramir, Boromir's nobler brother, and then fight a giant spider. Whew.

I'm not sure what to say about this one--I'd say it's about at the same level as the first one, but the characters are a little more fleshed out. The bits with Gollum are pretty interesting, but the movies are so similar I find that I already know a lot of what's going to happen before it happens. However, I don't remember much about the third movie, so maybe the third book will be new and interesting for me.