Shelfology Book Pairing

The Lord of the Rings: Part Two

by J.R.R. Tolkien

The middle novel in The Lord of the Rings—the greatest fantasy epic of all time—which began in The Fellowship of the Ring, and which reaches its magnificent climax in The Return of the King. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read The Fellowship is scattered. Some brace hopelessly for war against the ancient evil of Sauron. Others must contend with the treachery of the wizard Saruman. Only Frodo and Sam are left to take the One Ring, ruler of the accursed Rings of Power, to be destroyed in Mordor, the dark realm where Sauron is supreme. Their guide is Gollum, deceitful and obsessive slave to the corruption of the Ring.

by Dan Simmons

LOCUS AWARD WINNER • The multiple-award-winning science fiction master continues the epic adventure that began in Hyperion, where the opening of the Time Tombs threatens to alter the very fabric of time and space, in the second novel in the Hyperion Cantos. “One of the finest achievements of modern science fiction.”—The New York Times Book Review The shadow of war has fallen on the Web. In the corridors of power on Tau Ceti Center, chaos reigns. Out of reach from the clashing empires, the artificial intelligences of the TechnoCore manipulate everyone and everything. And on Hyperion itself, where battle rages in the skies and on the streets, the mysterious Time Tombs are opening. And the secrets they contain mean that nothing—nothing anywhere in the universe—will ever be the same.