Review Detail

As with Book I, this edit accomplishes its goals. It follows the books much more closely than the original release, or EE.

I especially appreciate the alterations with the Elves, both Rivendell and Lothlorien. The Aragorn/Arwen love story felt forced in, and there is a reason Tolkien put that as an appendix. Removing it helps move the main plot along. Removing almost all of Galadriel's creepy telepathy worked very well. It always felt overdone to me and Kerr brought it down to just enough.

The cuts for Moria work well. Gimli's anguish at finding Balin's tomb really hits now. Cutting overlong battle sequences with improbable physics and the spider-orcs helped a lot.

The one place it felt a bit rough was the end. The edits were a little disjointed, but Kerr had to work with the material at hand. I had to check the book to refresh my memory on the first book's telling of the breaking of the fellowship. Sure enough, Kerr rearranged it to much more closely follow the book.