The Hobbit, or
There and Back Again
by J.R.R. Tolkien, Andy Serkis (Narrator)
DETAILS:
Publisher: Recorded Books
Publication Date: September 20, 2020
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length:10 hrs., 25 min.
Read Date: January 18-22, 2022
What’s The Hobbit About?
I suppose it’s theoretically possible that in 2022 someone will be reading a book blog and not know the basics of this, right?
So a Hobbit (Bilbo Baggins) is recruited (quite presumptuously) by the wizard Gandalf to join a band of thirteen dwarves on their odyssey to sneak back into their territory which had been taken over by the dragon, Smaug. Their goal is to steal back the treasure (particularly an heirloom of the king’s family, the Arkenstone). There’s really no reason to think that Bilbo, who hates the idea of adventure and just wants to stay in his comfortable home all day (like 99.9997% of Hobbits) will make a capable burglar. But Gandalf insists on it, overrules the objections of the dwarves, and tricks Bilbo into accepting the role.
Along the way, they have various adventures—in addition to some nasty geographical features, they meet goblins, giants, trolls, freakishly huge talking spiders, a ware-bear, elves, and several others. Some of those are allies, many are not. Eventually, they reach the Lonely Mountain, face off against the dragon, find themselves in the middle of The Battle of Five Armies, and then (as the title implies) Bilbo goes back home.
The Narration
I saw that Serkis recorded this and almost jumped immediately—but I made myself hold off until he did the follow-up trilogy. Well, that happened last fall, so after I wrapped up my Alex Verus re-listen, I moved on to this series. What a delicious listen!
Serkis does a great job bringing individual characters to life—and keeping them individual. A couple of times I wondered if he was doing a McKellen impression with Gandalf, but I talked myself out of it—ditto for the other characters. I thought his Smaug was excellent, too.
The moment that [name redacted out of habit, can’t imagine I’m spoiling anything] turns on Bilbo was so well done that I felt something like surprise while I was waiting for it.
But the big question for me going in was how was he going to approach Gollum. Would he be prevented from duplicating the voice/characterization from the films in this format, because it wasn’t owned by some film company or something? Or was Serkis just sick and tired of doing it and wanted to try another approach? Nope and nope. His audiobook Gollum sounded just like the movie Gollum and I could’ve listened to that section of the book on a loop for few times through. I just loved it. It almost didn’t matter what he did the rest of the time.
I typically listen to audiobooks at more than 1.0x speed—it varies from book to book, narrator to narrator, genre to genre—what speed I use. Frequently, too, I’ll start at something like 1.2 and then work my way up as I get used to a narrator/book. Not with this one—I wanted to soak in the performance. I don’t think I made it more than a paragraph or two before I slowed to 1.0 and kept it there the whole time, I just really got into his performance (I’m not sure that I’ll do that for LoTR, those are some long reads).
Oof, I really should’ve thought of this before starting the book…
If you’re reading, it’s easy to skip and/or skim through the songs. If you’re listening to an audiobook—unless you want to stop everything you’re doing to focus on fast-forwarding just enough, you’re stuck listening to them all.
Call me a Philistine if you will, but I just can’t do the songs. And I consistently forget how many of them there are in this book. I tried, I really tried to pay attention, but I couldn’t. I do think Serkis did a decent job carrying a tune with them. I’d love a Behind the Scenes look at how they decided on a tune for him to use.
So, what did I think about The Hobbit Audiobook?
I’m not the Tolkein-fanboy that I (and many acquaintances) would’ve assumed I am. This is only my third (complete) time through the book—I tried a handful of times in grade school, but couldn’t make it through. I got some encouragement from a big fan in college to push through it so I could get to The Lord of the Rings, but didn’t get around to it until the year before Jackson’s LotR was released. I really enjoyed it then, and my appreciation grows in the re-reads. Serkis’ work here moved that up a lot, too.
It’s just a fantastic audiobook—any problems stem from the original text, not Serkis’s performance—if anything he helped the text (not that it needed much). I can’t wait to see what he does with LoTR, those books demand a bit more, and I’m confident he’ll live up to expectations, now I just want to hear it for myself.
If you’re at all curious about this, you should give it a shot—you’ll be glad you did. If you have no curiosity about this—are you sure? Should you reconsider your position? This’d be a great way on family vacations or something to introduce younger readers to the series, I’d think.
This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.
ThemisAthena
Great review (in turn)!
And I actually do think Serkis is deliberately making Gandalf sound like Ian McKellen — part in recognition of the fact that McKellen’s Gandalf is how many fans have come to see the Grey / White Wizard ever since the movies, and part as a professional tribute. He does the same thing with a few other characters in his LOTR recordings, too (https://themisathena.info/j-r-r-tolkien-the-lord-of-the-rings-performed-by-andy-serkis — I backdated my review to its original posting date elsewhere, so you might have missed it on my WP blog; the “Andy Serkis character interpretation vs. those characters in the movies” bit makes up a fair share of that review, so I won’t bore everybody to bits by repeating it here) — short version, though, if you loved this audio, there’s every chance you’ll also love his take on LOTR.
HCNewton
Finished his LOTR a couple of weeks back, and yeah, after listening to those, there’s no way that Serkis wasn’t paying tribute to his costars.