A very exciting follow up to the Fellowship of the Ring! I loved all the characters introduced,the Ents, the entire Rohan sub-plot, and even Shelob! Learning more about Smeagol/Gollum's personality was interesting and scary. It is a constant reminder throughout the second half of the book of how powerful the Ring is even by itself. I started to dislike Sam, which I was upset about because I loved him in the first book, but by the end he more then redeemed himself!

Spoiler

Unfortunately, reading this so long after everyone else spoiled Gandalf'd return for me. Everyone loves Gandalf, I knew he had to do more than he did in the first book!