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olivia2605's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
inspiring
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.5
debralewi's review against another edition
5.0
I thought this was a fantastic book, packed with interesting facts and the most stunning illustrations, gorgeous.
vaderbird's review against another edition
3.0
5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish
nikkileyman's review against another edition
5.0
i have, in fact, NOT read the whole thing :D i know, i know, i lied, but come on, it's basically an encyclopedia :)) very useful for looking up terms!
crowyhead's review against another edition
3.0
Day does an excellent job of explicating some of the intricacies of Tolkien's world, particularly the convoluted mythology of The Silmarillion. I'm not a big fan of the artwork in this book, though, which makes the whole thing only halfway successful for me.
bahnree's review against another edition
4.0
It's not very useful as a reference material because the same subject will have multiple entries but no cross-references within entries. I'd recommend Foster's Guide to Middle-Earth if you want a book to actually look up stuff in.
That being said, this was really fun to read and had really excellent illustrations.
That being said, this was really fun to read and had really excellent illustrations.
toad_maiden's review against another edition
3.0
This got three stars mostly because I love Tolkien in an irrepressible, nostalgic way. Frankly, this is not a high-quality encyclopedia. I thought the entries were organized and linked poorly. Day should have made better use of some sort of "See Also" tag to make navigation easier. In addition, the map was incomplete (I can't tell you how many times I scoured the map for a location listed in the text only to be disappointed), and the timelines were confusing. The writing style was your typical, overblown, inverted-sentence-structure, high-fantasy silliness. The illustrations were hit or miss. But I just love reading about elves and dwarves and ents, so I still enjoyed reading this.
laurelthebooks's review against another edition
Fun collection to flip-through, and not nearly as much content that was seemingly pulled out of thin air (as is the case in most of his other books I've read parts of).
Still be sure to double check that the information you're grabbing is cited elsewhere before you go using as fact though!
Still be sure to double check that the information you're grabbing is cited elsewhere before you go using as fact though!
hayesstw's review against another edition
4.0
Tolkien's world of Middle Earth introduces us to all kinds of creatures that are unfamiliar to us. Some we may have encountered in other stories -- elves, dwarves and goblins are found in many different fairy stories and fantasy novels, but hobbits, ents and balrogs are not. But even the ones whose names we know play a different role in Tolkien's stories. They have their own history, culture and languages.
This book is a kind of encyclopaedia of such creatures.
I've returned it to the library now, but I rather wish i had it for reference. Tolkien's books are full of allusions to tales, myths and legends of his world, but paging through other stories to find them can be quite challenging. Here they are all packed between the same covers.
Do you want to know the history of elves, and which ones saw the light of the two trees and which ones didn't? A quick lookup in this book will tell you.
Do you want to know about the relationship between Shelob and Ungoliant? It's all here.
And I found that just reading through it as if each entry was a chapter in a book helped me to recall some of the stories. It's a kind of mental map to the peoples and creatures of middle earth.
I just can't remember whether it said balrogs have wings or not. That's why I'd like my own copy.
This book is a kind of encyclopaedia of such creatures.
I've returned it to the library now, but I rather wish i had it for reference. Tolkien's books are full of allusions to tales, myths and legends of his world, but paging through other stories to find them can be quite challenging. Here they are all packed between the same covers.
Do you want to know the history of elves, and which ones saw the light of the two trees and which ones didn't? A quick lookup in this book will tell you.
Do you want to know about the relationship between Shelob and Ungoliant? It's all here.
And I found that just reading through it as if each entry was a chapter in a book helped me to recall some of the stories. It's a kind of mental map to the peoples and creatures of middle earth.
I just can't remember whether it said balrogs have wings or not. That's why I'd like my own copy.