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One of my favorite books with extraordinary battles and wonderful writing.
The two towers are the symbols of religious and political malfeasance both affronted by Bilbo and the Fellowship of the Ring along with their allies in some of the most visual scenes of battle ever written.

Tolkien switches the storytelling technique of the Quest which served him so well in The Hobbit, or There and Back Again and The Fellowship of the Ring. Following Boromir's temporary insanity at the end of the previous book, the Company is split into three pieces as The Two Towers begins: Frodo and Sam are off on the Quest alone, Pippin and Merry have been captured by the orcs for transport to Mordor, and Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas are headed to join forces with the armies of Rohan.

As Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas create a campfire near the forest of Fangorn, there is another nice view of the nature of trees: It may have been the dancing shadows that tricked their eyes, but certainly to each of the companions the boughs appeared to be bending this way and that so as to come above the flames, while the upper branches were stopping down; the brown leaves now stood out stiff, and rubbed together like many cracked hands taking comfort in the warmth. There was a silence, for suddenly the dark and unknown forest, so near at hand, made itself felt as a great brooding presence, full of secret purpose. (p. 431 - note that the page numbers are from the all-in-one volume of LOTR)

Meanwhile, Pippin and Merry have befriended Treebeard, an Ent (tree-person) and have a wonderful time trying to understand each other (p. 454) in which Treebeard's language is wonderfully what one might imagine a tree to talk like. Treebeard is no dummy, having known Saruman for some time, he perceives that he is up to no good (p. 462) and is persuaded by the Hobbits to rally the Ents to make battle on his stronghold at Isengard. But before this, there is another wonderful but very sad ecological message told by Treebeard - the disappearance of the Entmaidens and this the coming extinction of all the Ents (p. 464). I found this to be very sad and also very real. This theme seems to me to have been very important to Tolkien because even at the very end of The Return of the King, when we see Treebeard one last time, he laments the lost Entmaidens and Entwives once again. Treebeard: 'Of course, it is likely enough, my friends,' he said slowly, 'likely enough that we are going to our doom: the last march of the Ents....Still I would have liked to see the songs come true about the Entwives...But there, my friends, songs like trees bear fruit only in their own time and in their own way: and sometimes they are withered untimely. (p. 475).

Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli arrive after Isengard has already succumbed to the anger of the Trees (and let me just take one minute, speaking of the trees to make a short homage to the late Neal Peart and his wonderful lyrics:
There is unrest in the forest
There is trouble with the trees
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas
The trouble with the maples
And they're quite convinced they're right
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light
But the oaks can't help their feelings
If they like the way they're made
And they wonder why the maples
Can't be happy in their shade?
There is trouble in the forest
And the creatures all have fled
As the maples scream 'oppression!'
And the oaks, just shake their heads
So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights
'The oaks are just too greedy
We will make them give us light'
Now there's no more oak oppression
For they passed a noble law
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet,
Axe,
And saw
R.I.P. Neal.)
Merry and Pippen fill in their companions as to how the battle went. The description starting on page 520 is gripping to say the least. In the battle of Helm's Deep, the moment where Gilmi suddenly beheads two Orcs to save Eomer was epic (p. 522).

Another parenthesis here to talk about the beautiful description of friendship between Gimli and Legolas. In Tolkien, these two people have mostly been at odds (like the Scots and the British or perhaps the Irish and the British?) and the deep bond that is formed between the Elf and the Dwarf is striking. One of the most moving passages to me is when they decide to visit their favorite sites together after the war:
'And lights, Legolas! We should make lights, such lights as once shone in Khazad-Düm; and when we wished we would drive away the night that has lain there since the hills were made; and when we desired rest we would let the night return.'
'You move me, Gilmi,' said Legolas. 'I have never heard you speak like this before. Almost you make me regret that I have not seem those caves. Come! Let us make this bargain - if we both return safe out of the perils that await us, we will journey a while together. You shall visit Fangorn with me, and then I will come with you to see Helm's Deep.' (p. 535). Fortunately, we do get a glimpse of this journey in The Return of the King.

Later, Pippen and Merry meet Theoden before the critical discussion with a defeated Saruman, and introduce the king to pipe smoking in the most delightful way: 'For one thing,'said Théoden. 'I had not hear that [hobbits] spouted smoke from their mouths.'
'That is not surprising,' answered Merry; 'for it is an art which we have not practiced for more than a few generations.' (p. 544) Tobacco was introduced in England in 1565 following its 'discovery' by Columbus in 1492, so this is a homely reference to one of Tolkien's preferred vices.

During the angry exchange between Gandalf and Sarumon, I was curiously surprised to see a word which was all the rage in politics just two years ago.
'Gibbets and crows!' [Saruman] hissed, and they shuddered at the hideous change. 'Dotard! (p. 567). Interesting, so does that word exist in Korean or did the North Korean leader actually read Tolkien in the original English? Fascinating...

Once again, the protagonists are split up, but the story then shifts to the travails of Frodo and Sam on their slow progress towards Mount Doom. They are pursued in the shadows by Gollum. After a fall (that in its somewhat existential nature reminded me of Don Quixote falling off the window sill in Cervante's masterpiece), they 'capture' Gollum who is to lead them on their journey, one which he has naturally made before. Gollum describes the awful Dead Marshes which are lifted straight out of Dante with the rotting heads: They lie in all the pools, pale faces, deep deep under the dark water. I saw them: grim faces and evil, and noble faces and sad. Many faces proud and fair, and weeds in their silver hair. But all foul, all rotting, all dead. A fell light is in them.' (p. 614). One imagines that this hellscape comes directly from Tolkien's own wartime experiences on French battlefields in the hell of WWI.

However, before entering this apocalyptic landscape, they pass through idyllic Anduin. Many great trees grew there, planted long ago, falling into untended age amid a riot of careless descendants; and groves and thickets were of tamarisk and pungent terebinth, of olive and bay and there were junipers and myrtles; and thymes that grew in bushes, or with their woody creeping stems mantled in deep tapestries the hidden stones; sages of many kinds putting forth blue flowers, or red, or pale green; and majorams and new-sprouting parsleys, and many herbs of forms and scents beyond the garden-lore of Sam. (p. 636). I love how Tolkien reminds us here that things that we take for granted as domesticated (spices like thyme, flowers, parsley) all were originally part of the primeval forest long ago. And how, if left to its own devices, that it inevitably can come back.

During this phase of their voyage, Frodo and Sam meet Faramir of the Rohan (who will have a large role to play in the last volume!), Boromir's brother. The meeting is rather uncomfortable because they bear memories of Boromir's final treachery (although they do not yet know whether he is alive or dead), but are relieved that Faramir does not lust after the Ring as his brother did. 'But fear no more! I would not take this thing, if it lay by the highway. Not were Minas Tirith falling in ruin and I alone could save her, so, using the weapon of the Dark Lord for her good and my glory. No, I do not wish for such triumphs, Frodo son of Drogo.' (p. 656) Faramir shows himself worthy of future glory and is one of the more noble and incorruptible spirits in the trilogy.

As they take to the road again, they have a beautiful precursor to the victory that they hope will ultimately be theirs and that of Middle Earth: The eyes were hollow and the carven beard was broken, but about the high stern forehead there was a coronal of silver and gold. A trailing plant with flowers like small white stars had bound itself across the brows as if in reverence for the fallen king, and in the crevices of his stony yellow stonecrop gleamed.
'They cannot conquer for ever!' said Frodo. And then suddenly the brief glance was gone. The Sun dipped and vanished, and as if at the shuttering of a lamp, black night fell. (p. 687) Once again, nature is used as a symbol of regeneration and hope.

There is a wonderful little soundbyte about storywriting which sounds perfectly suited to a Frodo/Sam conversation but is a real mise-en-abime since they are talking about themselves as characters in a story. Sam:'And that's the way of a real tale. Take any one that you're fond of. You may know, or guess, what kind of tale it is, happy-ending or sad-ending, but the people in it don't know. And you don't want them to.' (p. 696). I thought this was an absolutely wonderful clin d'oeil from our omniscient narrator. Frodo continues: 'You and I, Sam, are still stuck in the worst places of the story, and it is all too likely that some will say at this point: 'Shut the book now, dad; we don't want to read anymore.''
'Maybe,' said Sam, 'but I wouldn't be one to say that. Things done over and made into part of the great tales are different. Why, even Gollum might be good in a tale, better than he is to have by you anyway. And he used to like tales himself once by his account. I wonder if he thinks he's the hero or the villain.' (p. 697). This is a keen observation because Gollum is precisely somewhere between a victim and a villain, and later between an unwilling hero and a clumsy villain.

There occurs then a scene where Gollum displays his dual nature (p. 699) and before the curtain falls on our story, Frodo is captured and Sam left alone.

This book is a real achievement as it is the perfect second volume of a thrilling trilogy: it builds on the suspense of the first volume, switching narrative frames and having us follow two or three groups of characters in parallel. Its battle scenes are gripping and epic. Whereas in the first volume, we met Elves and Dwarves (well, remnants of a Dwarf civilization in any case), in this book we meet the Men of Gondor and Rohan who will both be critical in the final battle of Mordor. One of my favorite books ever.

Fino's Tolkien Reviews:
The Hobbit
The Fellowship of the Ring (LOTR 1)
The Two Towers (LOTR 2)
The Return of the King (LOTR 3)
Lord of the Rings 1-3 - General Comments and Observations
Raymond Edward's Tolkien biography