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Summary: The Beginnings of Middle Earth & its People
Review: If you've ever wondered where Middle Earth came from, or exactly who the Istari Wizards were and where they came from, this is the book for you! The Simarillion is the history of Middle earth. This book shows the genius of Tolkien. He literally created a whole new world, all new races of people and each race has their own language and culture. Tolkien went into detail creating Middle Earth and most of that detail is included in this book. A perfect choice if the Lord of the Rings left you hungry for more.However, the Simarillion is not an easy book to read. It is full of details that can be hard to get through and keep straight. I kept the appendix of terms/definitions and the maps of Middle Earth dog-eared so I could keep flipping back to refer to as I read along to help me keep all of the information straight in my head. It's much easier to get through the second time. But, as difficult as it can be to get through, it's well worth it. It truely explains the who, where, what, why, and how behind the Lord of the Rings and gives greater understanding to the entire LoTR trilogy. By far, the Simarillion is my favorite Tolkien book!!! I refer back to it now and then when someone has a question about a character in LoTR. I love this book but it is definitely not for everyone!
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Summary: Doomed to failure and endless war
Review: What bothered me most about the overal theme(s) of this book is that the chosen children of god are doomed, over and over, through the course of several thousand years, to wage brutal and deadly war upon each other and against evil with a capital E. The mystical, peace-loving elves trace back history to quite a bloody and evil past, and while they are blessed with immortality (unless slain), they rarely learn from their own errors. How many benevolent leaders who have ruled their people for thousands of years in relative utopia, could throw it all away from a slight influence of a couple of outsiders? Not very well thought through character development through the huge expanse of history, and I would have expected at least SOME growth in the elves, dwarves and men over the thousands of years they have inhabited the middle earth. Of course, this book cannot be compared with LOTR or with The Hobbit because it is not a finished work, but rather a rough structure of the basic tales that formed the prehistory of Tolkien's world. I delved into it as a way of furthering my understanding of the world of Middle Earth. Unfortunately my further understanding can be summed up in "We have always done stupid things and will continue to do so ad infinitum." I prefer to have a bit more optimistic outlook on the future of human kind, and had especially hoped for a more clear and progressive growth in at least the Elves, otherwise how can they have become the peaceful and content, quiet and unassuming folk we love so much in the LOTR? Perhaps Tolkien would have addressed some of these issues had he fleshed out these stories, but as it stands the Cliff Notes of The Silmarillion would have provided me with any back story I ever really needed.
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Summary: well written but sadly dull
Review: Yes as every other reviewer has pointed out this book is well written, but where i disagree is in the fact that the book will put you to sleep. Some parts will grasp you and not let go but then again not only are those parts short and far between but ultimately unfulfilling, each story is never fully realized and is to short in my opinion. If you would like to read a creation story go read the first five books of the bible, it's what you feel like you have just read anyways. A long list of who married who and their children and their childrens children, where their step neice lived etc... if you are a tolkien junky who needs his fix be ready because this IS NOT lotr, its completely different. Tolkien must be given credit though this book is well written. If you just have to read it buy it used or get it from a friend, its not worth buying.
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Summary: It will make you wish they'd make a movie...
Review: I disagree with a lot of the other reviewers about the beginning of The Simarillion. In my opinion, the story of the creation of Middle Earth is well-written. Certainly there are a lot of names introduced, but it is unnecessary to remember them all. The first part of this book really reveals Tolkien's weaving of European, Judeo-Christian, Greek, and Roman mythology with his own fantasy. There is even an Old Testament feel to the diction that conveys the grand religious mood of the opening. Read it and decide for yourself. The only negative review I could possibly give this book is that it made the events of Lord of the Rings seem small in comparison. Sauron is, after all, only a lieutenant of Morgoth.
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Summary: Great stories, less so in presentation.
Review: The published Silmarillion is not what J.R.R. Tolkien wanted for most of his adult life to be published as the Silmarillion. It's a short compilation of much of his epic-length work, not necessarily the best tellings of any of his stories, that was culled together in the years immediately following his death. The principal problem is that Tolkien crafted beautiful stories, but most of his efforts at writing them as full-length novels ended in failure. The figures of the Silmarillion loom large, but always have a human side to them. I think the Silmarillion's cast of characters is at least as intriguing as that in The Lord of the Rings, but lacks the time for the sheer depth of subtle shading that made LotR a brilliant read. The highlights of the Silmarillion are unquestionably the stories that center around its titanic characters - the clash of egos in Fëanor and the theft of the Silmarils, the rapturous love story of Beren and Lúthien, the operatically dark Túrin Turambar, and the epic Fall of Gondolin all would have made for novels that would blow any other written fantasy out of the water. As it stands, as stories, they are still gripping enough in the Silmarillion that they'll be more than worth reading. Some of the exposition between can get tedious if you're not yet into Tolkien's world, or if you're expecting yet another Lord of the Rings. The Silmarillion, as a whole, is an epic worldbuilding and mythology that no fantasist after Tolkien ever came close to. It has a definite, but by no means simple, view of the world that makes it quite relevant as literature (as opposed to the normal Manichaean dualism that dominates Tolkien-derivative fantasy). The morality of Tolkien is interesting and challenging, and if you really think about it very little fantasy even comes close. Get, read, and enjoy the Silmarillion for what it is: a mythology, complete with great tales. If you hunger for more of these stories afterward, volumes 1-5 and 10 and 11 of the History of Middle-Earth series are dedicated to them - they are more scholarly, but the re-approach to many of the stories can be enlightening and thrilling. I heartily recommend it all to anyone who can't get enough of Tolkien.
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Summary: Diiferent Than LOTR
Review: This book is way different than LOTR. Its kinda hard to understand too. Its like worst to understand than the bible. I think I might try to read it again to fully understand it.
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Summary: Good Read
Review: This book is every bit as good as Lord of the Rings and in some ways better. It does take a while for most people to read. But actually, I didn't find it too difficult. The hardest part is just keeping all the names strait, and that's mostly because the book spans several thousands of years. It talks about the creation of Middle Earth by Illuvitar all the way up to a small mention of a hobbit finding the One Ring. Of course if you've read the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, you know that hobbit is Bilbo Baggins. It also goes into how the Dwarves were made (they were not part of Illuvitar's plan). One of the things I love about the book is there's a little Elvish-English dictionary in the appendix. This book is great if you want to know more about the history of Middle Earth and what caused everything that's going on in the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and wanted to know a little bit more (well, ok, a lot more) about the Elves. There are some parts of the book that I didn't find too interesting, like when Tolkien goes into the geography of Middle Earth in a little too much detail for my taste. But hey, in the version I have, there's maps of Middle Earth in there, so you can just skip that chapter and refer to the map if needed. Definately recommend this one to fantasy and Lord of the Rings/Hobbit fans. I think I'm going to read it again and then read the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, just so that I can read them all in the order Tolkien intended them to be read.
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Summary: The Silmarillion for the newer Tolkien fans.
Review: One of the things that must be understood about the Silmarillion is that it is a long narrative and not a character driven story like the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. So if you go into this book expecting that sort of thing you will be in for a surprise. The published Silmarillion is basically a summarized version of the "full" story Tolkien always intended to tell. Basically it is all the essential information one needs to understand the epic events of the First and Second Ages (as well as the early and mid Third Age) of Arda and Middle-earth (The Lord of the Rings took place right at the end of the Third Age as you might know). That being said, one should also realize when reading critiques about the books dryness, that it was intended to have been at least as long as the Lord of the Rings by the author. What we have is indeed J.R.R. Tolkien but it was greatly trimmed down by his son Christopher from a mountain of notes. I believe that Tolkien commented in one of his letters that the Silmarillion, as he intended it, contained over 600,000 words. I think if you can get beyond the flawed mindset that the universe is all about human interaction, and happen to have a better than average imagination, this difference in style will not matter at all. All this being said, it is still a fantastic work. I like the long narrative format and feel that it is in perfect harmony with what Tolkien was attempting to do (create a uniquely English mythology). It must be understand that the Silmarillion came first and was started as early as 1916/17 during his time serving in World War I. It contains the very creation of Arda (which is indeed our own earth), the shaping of it by the Valar (angelic "godlike" spirits), as well as the very origins of The Wizards, Sauron, Elves, Men, Dwarves, Balrogs, and Orcs. If you where intrigued by the wealth of history and detail in the Lord of the Rings, the Silmarillion is essential reading to fully appreciate the Lord of the Rings on a level above "adventure story". Tolkien created an "imaginary history" of our own world, not some planet in a different galaxy or dimension. If you like history of truely epic proportions, and understand what the author intended, you should enjoy this book immensely. It truly is a work of genius. One warning to the first time reader. The one obstacle for some might be the plethora of names in the book. It's not really the number of names as it is the similarity of the names (particularly of characters) used that can be confusing. This was of course intentional, since it fit with Tolkien's specific philological themes and tastes. My advice would be to read it and not worry about remembering who is who at all points your first time. It is a historical theme, and many characters, while being major historically, are not characterized. The book contains plenty of genealogical charts to help anyway. After finishing the book, and if you where intrigued in the same way you where with the Lord of the Rings, I would suggest buying the Atlas of Middle-Earth and reading it a second time while using the Atlas, so that you can better visualize Tolkiens world (the maps in the books do not illustrate major places like Aman or the Iron Mountains). The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth is an excellent resource as well as it contains specific definitions to every person, place, or thing in Tolkiens Middle-Earth saga. Then, if you want more, pick up the Histories of Middle-Earth volumes and the single book called Unfinished Tales. These go into more detail regarding races, characters, etc. featured in the summarized Silmarillion.
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Summary: Dull, dull, dull treatise on Middle Earth
Review: I love Tolkein's books, but as a reader, not a student. Therefore, I look at his books as a reader of STORIES, not an intellectual exercise in world building. Therefore, I have to say, "The Silmarillion" is a boring textbook exercise on documenting the bloodlines that Tolkein wrote about so brilliantly in the Hobbit and Trilogy books. The writing style is documentarian, tinder-box dry and dull. There's not an ounce of emotion in the entire volume. It's more like a thesauraus than a novel. If you want an engrossing story for adults, read "LOTR." If you are looking for a more childlike adventure, pick up "The Hobbit." But don't buy "The Silmarillion" unless you'd get excited by looking through a Farmer's Almanac/World Book encyclopedia of Middle Earth.
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Summary: Tolkien mostly for the gourmets
Review: Tolkien is the godfather of fantasy writing, no doubt about it. If you liked "The Hobbit" and loved "The Lord of the Rings", you're gonna go crazy about this!
This book takes you back before all of Tolkien's other Middle Earth books, right back to the beginning of time, and goes up to right before "The Hobbit" (For those of you who've only seen the movies, this is where they got a lot of the stuff in the prologue to "The Fellowship etc.").
Bare in mind that this is not easy reading and certainly not a children's book like "The Hobbit". If you're not a big Tolkien-fan, you might find some passages too boring and complicated. But for anyone who loves the Middle Earth universe, this is a must-buy!
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