The Fall of Numenor

This is an opportunity to revisit Middle-Earth. Like many science fiction and fantasy fans, I grew up on Tolkien and devoured everything I could of his writing. The later collections of notes and fragments compiled by Christopher Tolkien have always been somewhat impenetrable for me, teasing a recapture of the magic from those early days. However, not until these new compiled works have been released have they spoken to me in the same way.

Reading the book as an audio work also helped. This makes the notes and commentary palatable without dragging you away from the narration of events.

Tolkien is my all-time favorite author. The material in this book had appeared before, but was scattered all over in books published over several decades. 

Bringing all this material together and organizing it in a more coherent fashion makes the stories come alive like never before and allows the reader to more easily situate them within the grand scope of Tolkien’s mythology. Moreover, the depth, beauty, and complexity of the writing demonstrate just how much more erudite Tolkien was than most of the hacks posing as fantasy authors today. You get a real sense of the history of Middle Earth.… show more.