I've loved Middle Earth ever since I read The Hobbit and LOTR as a kid, but had never gotten through the Silmarillion before. But it was so fun to do so and finally be able to understand the worldbuilding in his universe and the history that the characters references; also the mythic, epic feeling of the book was really fun! By itself it might be unsatisfying but knowing it references so many other stories Tolkien wrote makes it really tantalizing—it's super fun, for instance, to compare the story of Beren and Lúthien as told in the Silmarillion to the version told in the Lay of Leithian and piece them together!
The Silmarillion is kind of like a puzzle, kind of like a game, kind of like a history book, kind of like a myth. And the genre mashup makes it really unique and compelling to read.
The forerunner to The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion fills in the background which lies behind the more popular work, and gives the earlier history of Middle-earth, introducing some of the key characters.
The tales of The Silmarillion are set in an age when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-Earth, and the High Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils, the jewels containing the pure light of Valinor.
Included on the recording are several shorter works. The Ainulindale is a myth of the Creation and in the Valaquenta the nature and powers of…
It was just such a unique, thoughtful little book, tightly written with really good pacing. Although it was slow and meditative, it ended up having a very intricately crafted plot that brought together the lives of a whole group of characters in a way I didn't expect. The plot was never predictable, but kept surprising me till the end; it was very simple but beautiful and very good sci-fi, and used the central conceit in a satisfying way.
If you could go back in time, who would you want to meet?
In a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee—the chance to travel back in time.
Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel isn’t so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most…
This book is so good because it's an entire Greek Tragedy but set in Middle Earth! It's really wonderfully put together; you can tell JRR Tolkien & his son spent a lot of time making it hold together. It had an immediacy that something like The Silmarillion lacks and gives you so many details about the minor characters and more day-to-day life and politics that were taking place during the Silmarillion. For worldbuilding it's just amazing and hugely intriguing. Plus poor Túrin is absolutely a tragic hero, really fun to both rail against and root for at the same time...
Painstakingly restored from Tolkien's manuscripts and presented for the first time as a fully continuous and standalone story, the epic tale of The Children of Hurin will reunite fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, dragons and Dwarves, eagles and Orcs, and the rich landscape and characters unique to Tolkien.
There are tales of Middle-earth from times long before The Lord of the Rings, and the story told in this book is set in the great country that lay beyond the Grey Havens in the West: lands where Treebeard once walked, but which…
What would you do if a meteorite landed in your own front yard?
And not just any meteorite, but one that turns out to be some kind of growing menace that will infect you and your community—mind and body?
Illustrator Sara Barkat lends her vision to H.P. Lovecraft’s timeless science fiction tale to bring you an entrancing read about a community that faces exactly this horror. Barkat’s interest in the intricacies of our natural and built world rises to the surface in beautifully-detailed illustrations that will send you deeper into the story—gripping both your heart and mind.
