This week I read The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. I have never read any Tolkien books before, nor stayed awake during any of the movies-- so I was surprised when I was able to really enjoy and actually finish the entirety of The Hobbit. It wasn't quite as long as the Lord of the Rings series, which I'm sure helped, but it was still a good sized book! I was surprised at how accessible the language in the book was, and found myself really enjoying it.
The book reminded me very much of the Redwall series, also written by a man from the UK. The style of writing as far as the worldbuilding, songwriting, elaborate descriptions of feasts, and inherent good/evil alignment of certain races of beings in both books are very similar. However, I did notice that in The Hobbit, the tone was very conversational, as if the author himself was telling you the story in real time. I think this is definitely one of the things that made the book so accessible, and probably helped in the popularity that it gained.
I don't always agree with the Hero's Journey as being an the only possible way to write a cohesive story-- though I recognize that it's a tried-and-true way to write a long-form fantasy story. The Hobbit is a good example of this-- the story is very structured, but you don't realize this while you are reading it. The story flows and the transitions are not easily spotted. I do understand why the movie seemed to embellish the story so much however, as it is written subtly and not in a flashy way that would be at all appropriate for a movie.
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