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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A very creative guy named God lays a blueprint for all of existence with musical notes sung to him by his toy angels, one of them wants very badly to be a composer as well but god won’t pass the blunt of original creative genious and so said angel, little guy named Melkor/Morgoth Bauglir, just end up making really sad imitations of of the OG and gives absolutely no cred.
Earth gets made, a bunch of god’s favourite toe-suckers, the Valar go down into creation that is the flat earth, where they play around in the sand pit making mountains out of mole hills, and Morgoth throughs sand and water pails full of magma all over there nice forests, mountain valleys, etc, they kick his ass for this and God said “Ye, this is good.”
Elves show up and they know how to obey god like 95% of the time so it goes pretty good and they get to walk into heaven. Then after about 10million eons the gods finally invent the sun and moon, so men can finally wake up and immediately fiend for the crack pipe of immortality; so it goes badly for them. And lo, both of these peoples do some kin-slaying and cousin/sister/inter-species fucking now and again until God finally starts taking pity again, has one last big fight in the sandpit with Morgoth, that sinks an entire continent.
I understand fully why people believe in god that lets wars happen after reading this book, they are after all, a good story and a whole lot of fun for the guy with immunity directing the whole thing. If you’ve every played a rts-style or table-top wargame you should be able to empathize. Tolkien also shows himself to be a thorough going wife-guy throughout, most character who ere usually do so by not listening the wife, and or God and his messengers. It is superbly written, reproducing a biblical style in that “I’m constantly referring back to the map and family tree once a paragraph sort of way.” I adored it.
Book perk:
+100 to instances of saying “Oh I know that reference.” while reading LoTR
Earth gets made, a bunch of god’s favourite toe-suckers, the Valar go down into creation that is the flat earth, where they play around in the sand pit making mountains out of mole hills, and Morgoth throughs sand and water pails full of magma all over there nice forests, mountain valleys, etc, they kick his ass for this and God said “Ye, this is good.”
Elves show up and they know how to obey god like 95% of the time so it goes pretty good and they get to walk into heaven. Then after about 10million eons the gods finally invent the sun and moon, so men can finally wake up and immediately fiend for the crack pipe of immortality; so it goes badly for them. And lo, both of these peoples do some kin-slaying and cousin/sister/inter-species fucking now and again until God finally starts taking pity again, has one last big fight in the sandpit with Morgoth, that sinks an entire continent.
I understand fully why people believe in god that lets wars happen after reading this book, they are after all, a good story and a whole lot of fun for the guy with immunity directing the whole thing. If you’ve every played a rts-style or table-top wargame you should be able to empathize. Tolkien also shows himself to be a thorough going wife-guy throughout, most character who ere usually do so by not listening the wife, and or God and his messengers. It is superbly written, reproducing a biblical style in that “I’m constantly referring back to the map and family tree once a paragraph sort of way.” I adored it.
Book perk:
+100 to instances of saying “Oh I know that reference.” while reading LoTR
A pretty tough read, but not nearly as bad as I expected. If you just don't get too caught up on all the names and family lines and stuff it's pretty easy to just enjoy the lore and stories. You start to recognize the important characters just as with any other book.
Overall, it's really just a book of awesome Legends throughout the history of Middle earth and I was all about it!!
Overall, it's really just a book of awesome Legends throughout the history of Middle earth and I was all about it!!
adventurous
dark
informative
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
It took me a while to get into this book. After all it is a compilation of stories about the world we encounter in Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Once I got into it, I did not want it to end.
It has something incredibly enigmatic to create your own myths, mythology and explanations of how the world came about that we now inhabit. It is an all-time favourite of mine now.
It has something incredibly enigmatic to create your own myths, mythology and explanations of how the world came about that we now inhabit. It is an all-time favourite of mine now.
adventurous
challenging
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Pretty elaborate background mythology to the Lord of the Rings. It’s written in a very fast paced manner condensing a very long timeline into a pretty fast paced series of vignettes. Dense reading with lots of names and events, but adds a rich history to some of the happenings and songs in LOTR.
When someone says they read Tolkien for the lore, picture this book as "the lore" as that is all this is. All the rich lore, themes, cultures, myths, and legends compacted into a single book. This is how you know Tolkien was truly devoted to his own worldbuilding. The Silmarillion is a freakin' history textbook for a fictional world! And I love it! Don't get me wrong, that glossary is necessary for understanding this, and it certainly is a dry read. BUT the lore behind it and the story told across millennia is truly awesome. Satan--I mean Morgoth--rebelling and plunging the world into a darkness that lasted centuries and the races of the world, even united couldn't stop this without the aid of Heaven? Yes. Immortal spirits (elves) rebelling against the gods to gain vengeance against Morgoth? Yes, please. A civil war waged over centuries for precious heirlooms, drawing in multiple races and countries, culminating in the fall of all the free kingdoms until a mortal man; who was forced to watch his children tragically die after they learn they have committed the unforgivable sin of incest but, hey, they killed a dragon on the way; this mortal man is able to overcome his grief, take up his sword and march against the forces of darkness, uniting the free peoples against this shadow that has forced the land into darkness for centuries?! YES, PLEASE! If you like learning about lore, mythology, and history, this is certainly a must read after Lord of the Rings. But if you didn't love Lord of the Rings and can't stand history or mythology, you'll probably hate this.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
tense
medium-paced
This book is Booooring! It's the history of everything in Middle Earth prior to The Hobbit and was taken from JRR Tolkien ' s notes by his son. Then edited into something resembling a story to make a buck. if you appreciate very dry narrative and want to read a text book about ME, this is for you.
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I just couldn't keep track of all the names, dates and places and this didn't feel motivated to continue.