I waited entirely too long to read this book.
It was, of course, amazing.

I will start this review by saying that I listened to this book instead of reading it, technically. The reader, Andy Serkis, did a fantastic job. I will never for the life of me understand how someone can do so many voices so drastically different. It was amazing . I was pleasantly surprised by how many songs were woven within this tale and he somehow sang/read all of these effortlessly. I cannot even imagine reading them and knowing the correct tune to even "read" in my head. These songs gave the story such a refreshing, old school, fantasy vibe. It made you think of the songs of bards and the heroes of old.

I was pleasantly surprised to find all of the details that the movies changed and left out of this book. I still think the movie was great, but I definitely enjoyed the book more. I know. I know. I'm sorry it had to be said.

Now about the story itself,
Legit, fuck the dwarves. I loved them as companions, but as the "leaders" of this adventure and the most to gain from it they were complete trash people. Thoran worse of all. He loved to go through the story spouting his title, but my goodness, he did nothing but that until the fighting at the end. Bilbo, a nameless hobbit saved them all multiple times and ended up being the leader of this adventure as soon as Gandalf left them. The dwarves were utterly helpless and directionless. A king in blood, but not in practice, that's for sure. They never even set eyes on Smaug. Bard and Bilbo were really the only people in the whole story that dared to confront Smaug.
I'm kind of glad Thoran died in the end and gave his throne to someone more practical. Someone who was willing to share the treasure with the people who actually did something to deserve it. I suppose the end was some redemption for the dwarves overall and maybe the enchantment of the treasure was simply too much. Overall I enjoyed the whole story though.

Tolkien is a genius. I loved his writing.