The Silmarillion, (Hardcover)

Beautiful art and great story

The Silmarillion isn't for everyone -- its language is prosaic and it can move slowly -- but for fans who have to have a complete collection of Tolkien's works, this is a beautiful edition. The dust cover art is gorgeous, as are the illustrations inside, and the binding (to my admittedly inexperienced eye) appears to be of high quality. Highly recommended.

This book is rather like reading some history textbook. Except its fictional, and has little bearing on anything. I realize that Tolkein is the master and that he is single handedly responsible for all of the fantasy fiction today, but gosh is it boring. The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings are readable--barely at some points-- and have some good themes in them. This is just a lot of: Elesor son of Elisor son of Elasor did such and such... Tedious. It has some OK bits: the origin of the elves and Sauron, but those are few and far between I s'pose I'm revealing myself for the philistine that I am. Besides rabid Tolkien fans, maybe someone who really enjoys ancient literature will find this interesting.

This book is a very difficult read... It's liken to reading a history book... some of it is interesting if you want to know about the origins of the elves, dwarves, humans, ect.. in Middle Earth, but you really have to trudge through it. If you're really into studying history and such (even though it's fiction), you would probably like this book better than I did. Oh, and it does become more interesting about a third of the way through where Tolkien's nephew, I believe, finished it after his death. It becomes a little more like a story than a history book then.