Why it's essential

Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in the films, brings his incredible talent and astounding vocal range to Tolkien’s classic adventure.

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What is The Hobbit about?

 opens on protagonist Bilbo Baggins, a reluctant homebody of a hero who is yanked from the comforts of his cozy Hobbit-hole when wise, genial wizard Gandalf recruits him for a most unexpected journey. Accompanying a party of 13 dwarves on a quest to reclaim their homeland, Bilbo proves time and again to be far pluckier than he believes himself to be as he faces down creatures ranging from trolls to the formidable dragon Smaug.

Editor's review

Editor Alanna is a proponent of thoughtful storytelling of all kinds—from vulnerable, author-narrated memoir to works of horror and sci-fi that meditate on the human condition.

I was still in diapers when the bar for fantasy world-building was set unreasonably high. My mother, who had been a fan of ’s work since she herself was a child, passed along her fandom to me. To this day, that sense of awe hasn’t faded, and even as an adult, I find myself wide-eyed and wonderstruck by the world that Tolkien created—dragons and dwarves and hobbits and elves and wizards, dark forces unseen and simple goodness unparalleled, a good old-fashioned tale of whimsy and adventure that completely redefined what it meant to tell a story.

But when Tolkien wrote The Hobbit back in the 1930s, he did not set out to create a work explicitly for children. Rather, he was crafting a fairy story, one rooted in his fascination with language, mythology, and history, that allowed him to build out a lore of his own. Nevertheless, it captivated readers young and old and has since become both a staple of kidlit and a foundational work in the overarching fantasy genre. Many stories are hailed as timeless, as enjoyable for little ones as they are for those several generations ahead, but few are as truly universal as this one, an accessible entry into a fully realized world in which you may wade as shallowly as you like or dive deep into ages of lore and backstory.

At its core, the story, following a most unlikely hero in the reserved, slightly curmudgeonly Bilbo Baggins, is a quest not just to slay the dragon and conquer evil but a journey into one’s own. Before Gandalf’s intervention, Bilbo has no inclination of taking on such an exploit, preferring instead the comforts and safeties of the only home he’s known. Hobbits, seemingly representative of England’s common countryfolk, are not heralded for theatrical acts of daring or brawn. But what Bilbo does have, in spades, is heart, goodness, and the capacity for tremendous courage, given the opportunity. Over the course of the story, we listen as Bilbo transforms into the confident hero of legend, the kind of pathfinding traveler that would write of his ventures, which in and of themselves create his memoir and center the narrative of . Bilbo is such a beloved figure in literature because he is all of us—as a timid, cautious child, his capers rang as evidence that I, too, had something to offer.While there’s a high chance you’re already familiar with , you haven’t heard it quite like this. Andy Serkis, who gave a legendary mo-cap performance as Gollum in Peter Jackson’s Lord the Rings film trilogy, returns to Middle-earth in this triumphant recording. Put simply, Serkis’s performance is nothing short of magnificent. Yes, his character work is undeniably spectacular, a detail that will surprise no one who has ever seen Serkis build from the ground up in film and on television. Take, for instance, his construction of Gollum on screen, a role he reprises with vigor in this audio edition of . Flittering between a guttural, phlegmy croak and moments of softer, quickened, almost overwrought vocals, Serkis commands both pity and unease. It is a singular performance, one inextricable from the character, and it’s a feat Serkis proves himself capable of time and again in his performance of .Yet Serkis’s range extends far beyond his well-established skills of varying voice, accent, tone, and delivery. His narration itself infuses this familiar tale with so much magic, so much clear adoration and affection, that to hear him unravel it is as if hearing the story for the very first time. His performance rings almost nostalgic, reminiscent of a parent with a particular gift for making the words come alive. As his voice lilted through the story’s songs and rhymes, ringing with warmth and good humor, and escalating during the more treacherous moments in Bilbo’s adventure, I was transported back to my adolescence, my inner child’s imagination stoked anew.Whether it’s your first time visiting Middle-earth or you’re a veritable armchair Tolkien scholar, the journey there (and back again) is all the more memorable with Serkis by your side.