• The Return of the King

  • The Lord of the Rings, Book 3
  • By: J. R.R. Tolkien
  • Narrated by: Rob Inglis
  • Length: 17 hrs and 12 mins
  • 4.9 out of 5 stars (836 ratings)

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The Return of the King  By  cover art

The Return of the King

By: J. R.R. Tolkien
Narrated by: Rob Inglis
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Publisher's summary

The complete, unabridged audiobook of The Return of the King.

Concluding the story begun in The Hobbit, this is the final part of Tolkien’s epic masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, available as a complete and unabridged audiobook.

The armies of the Dark Lord Sauron are massing as his evil shadow spreads ever wider. Men, Dwarves, Elves and Ents unite forces to do battle against the Dark. Meanwhile, Frodo and Sam struggle further into Mordor in their heroic quest to destroy the One Ring.

Includes Appendix A.

©1954, 1966 The Tolkien Estate Limited (P)1991 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"An extraordinary book. It deals with a stupendous theme. It leads us through a succession of strange and astonishing episodes, some of them magnificent." (The Observer)

"Among the greatest works of imaginative fiction of the twentieth century." (Sunday Telegraph)

What listeners say about The Return of the King

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Inglis sounds like Tolkien!

As far as I know, this is the only unabridged reading of LOTR, so if you want unabridged this is the one to go for! (if you want abridged, try the BBC full cast dramatisation).

Rob Inglis has a very traditional english voice - similar to Tolkien's own. He reads in a very measured way. Not only does he read the entire book (apart from the appendices), he also sings all of the songs. I think that he suits the reading, but I find sometimes he doesn't differentiate the characters enough, and the pace is not fast. I also find that he makes the hobbits a bit too "yokel" (rural english accent) for me.

That said, I enjoyed this audiobook and would recommend it. The only thing to be aware of is that Audible have divided it into six separate audiobooks, so to listen to the whole of LOTR, you are going to have to buy them all.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Finally!

Would you listen to The Return of the King again? Why?

Absolutely. The narrator was excellent and the story is timeless.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Return of the King?

(No spoilers, I promise) Toward the end there is a whole section that was not in the films at all. This was my first time reading and it made the story new again for a film fan.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Of course, but I don't want to give away anything.

Any additional comments?

As a long-time Lord of the Rings movie fan, I finally tuckered down and listened to the books. They are fantastic. They are filled with new (to me) characters and additional stories that you wouldn't know about if you'd only watched the films. Definitely get this series on your "to read" list.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

About the narrator

We all know that the book itself is really good. As for the narrator’s performance, it wouldn’t be better. He gives every character a distinct voice and his pronunciations are great. He even sang the songs in the book, and he did pretty well. I sometimes listen to the songs he sang. In brief, Rob Inglis is the best.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I have been listening to this recording

Since I was 16 and I am now 46. It’s excellent on so many levels. Inglis is a master reader and actor.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Beautiful

It is read beautifully, I come to it once a year and it always delivers.
The story and author are beyond comment, just perfect.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A Classic tale ends

Its a given that this story is great. The narrator is on point but the audio is not perfectly clean.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The Perfect End

This is one of the rare occasions where a writer, not only develops the thematic ending to the main characters, and even secondary characters, but really closes the thematic argument of the whole saga and all other subplots very gracefully.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Graet

Please note: Audible posts reviews at its discretion. All the submitted reviews become the property of Audible.com as set forth in our Conditions of Use. In most cases, reviews will be processed for display in one or two days.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

New Audiobook Recording needed

This masterpiece of a book is not done justice to by this dates reading that has been the only one available for years and years. It is
Time for a new unabridged interpretation of this outstanding trilogy. It would be great if this could include singing that sounded as if sung by elves. There is so much better technology available now that a new audio version is sorely needed.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

wonderful story

I have never gotten around to listening to lotr but now that I have I wish I could forget and experience this wonderful story anew.

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