Rating: 
Summary: Could have been better
Review: I was rather dissapointed in this Dummies book. There are tons of editing mistakes. In one chapter about the Vala, the author refers to a section about Melkor repeatedly. When one seeks out this section it is nowhere to be found. He completely forgot it!
What I feel is the biggest problem with this book is the authors choice to analyze the text of the The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings apart from what Tolkien wrote about the books in other texts and letters. How can we write an accurate book about the origins of Middle-Earth and completely ignore Tolkien's opinions and thoughts? Especially considering that Tolkien put so much of himself and his Catholic faith into the books. Is Tolkien himself not the ULTIMATE origin of Middle-Earth?
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic !!!
Review: Having read many books about Tolkien and the themes he so richly presents in "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings", I have been eagerly awaiting the release of this book for several months. I was not disappointed ! Greg Harvey has taken a very complex trilogy, and along with "The Hobbit", managed to put together an enjoyable and easily readable book which explores all the many facets of Tolkien's world and the characters in it. In the humorous and entertaining style of all the "Dummies" books, we are treated to detailed explanations of the places, beings, and beasts which inhabit the very imaginative mind of the greatest author of the 20th century. If this wasn't enough, Mr. Harvey goes into great detail about the underlying themes in the books, the motivations of the characters, and how the story is relative to our modern world. Touching on philosophy and religion, themes of friendship, good vs. evil, love and loyalty, human frailty, lust for greed and power --- it's all here, and in an intelligent, unbiased presentation. Not too hard to understand or follow, and not "dumbed down" for the lowest common denominator. A superb book that will entertain and provoke you to think. Not at all for dummies ! You'll be glad you bought a copy --- you won't be disappointed. Money well spent for the Tolkien fan !!!
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic !!!
Review: Having read many books about Tolkien and the themes he so richly presents in "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings", I have been eagerly awaiting the release of this book for several months. I was not disappointed ! Greg Harvey has taken a very complex trilogy, and along with "The Hobbit", managed to put together an enjoyable and easily readable book which explores all the many facets of Tolkien's world and the characters in it. In the humorous and entertaining style of all the "Dummies" books, we are treated to detailed explanations of the places, beings, and beasts which inhabit the very imaginative mind of the greatest author of the 20th century. If this wasn't enough, Mr. Harvey goes into great detail about the underlying themes in the books, the motivations of the characters, and how the story is relative to our modern world. Touching on philosophy and religion, themes of friendship, good vs. evil, love and loyalty, human frailty, lust for greed and power --- it's all here, and in an intelligent, unbiased presentation. Not too hard to understand or follow, and not "dumbed down" for the lowest common denominator. A superb book that will entertain and provoke you to think. Not at all for dummies ! You'll be glad you bought a copy --- you won't be disappointed. Money well spent for the Tolkien fan !!!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful but watch for errors
Review: I agree with the various reviewers below who say this a wonderful book, especially for beginners. It has been very useful to me in a number of ways. However, I have a major caveat:THERE ARE ERRORS IN THIS BOOK. Just one example, to keep this review short: Harvey says on page 92 that the name "Aragorn" means "Lord of the Trees" when Tolkien's letter #347 says specifically that it does NOT. (Similarly, on Harvey's website, he also says that the sword "Narsil" means "Red Flame," when in the same letter Tolkien says that while "nar" is fire, the "sil" refers to a white light). When I find a very obvious error like this, I worry about how many more there might be and indeed there are other mistakes as well. I feel sad about this criticism, because Harvey is such an open, generous writer, completely respecting Tolkien's Catholic faith (and any reader of the whole corpus, including the Silmarillion, letters, etc. will see how deeply Catholic the work itself is) while not holding it himself - very refreshing. So three stars for being an awesome resource for beginners, but for those care deeply about Tolkien and are looking for accuracy, readers need to know that they need to double-check the facts before taking anything Harvey says as "gospel."
Rating: 
Summary: Terrible, Full of Errors
Review: I sat down in Borders and read this in half an hour. I am a huge Tolkien fan, and know all his works backward and forward, and this was such a terrible thing to see shelved in the bookstore. It mistranslates names, gets dates and events screwed up, and is simply a terrible reference material. If you want to know about Tolkien's Middle-earth, pick up Tolkien's books and *read* the things.
Don't take this crappy short-cut.
Rating: 
Summary: A useful resource for beginners
Review: If you have read and thoroughly understood *The Lord of the Rings* and *The Silmarillion* and have already delved into the origins of Tolkien's world, then you probably won't find this book very helpful. However, if you are fairly new to Tolkien's world and are looking to get deeper into the mythology of Middle-earth, this is a great place to begin. Greg Harvey brings his own background as a scholar of language and myth to provide the reader with a solid (if somewhat sketchy) look at how Middle-earth came into being as well as a handy guide to places, characters, races, and events. I did find a few errors along the way, and some of the author's interpretations may surprise you as they conflict with what other Tolkien scholars have written over the years. At any rate, contrary to what some might feel, there is a lot to know about Tolkien's creation that can't be gleaned from "just reading the books." A basic grasp of the story's real-world mythological and historical roots is endlessly valuable if you want to increase your enjoyment of the novels. Buy this book if A) you loved the movies and are getting ready to read the novels, B) you've read the books and were confused by some of Tolkien's literary and mythological allusions, or C) you own a copy of *The Silmarillion* and couldn't get past the first twenty or so pages.
Rating:
Summary: Much needed help!
Review: Let's face it. Tolkien's books are hard. There are so many people and places to keep track of that it's hard to keep track of them. This makes reading them hard. Luckily we have the movies. The third Lord of the Rings movie will be out soon and I can hardly wait. This Dummies book promised to make Tolkien easier, but it's hard to read too. If they make a movie of this book, it'll be the best ever!
Rating:
Summary: bleh...
Review: The author seems more interested in things like "what does the ring mean to you?" than "what the ring meant to Tolkien". More postmodern literary interpretation run amuck...
On the bright side, this book has some really nice charts and timelines (although I disagree with his map where he superimposed Middle-Earth over Europe - I believe it should be far more to the west than he has it).
Rating:
Summary: Good Information, but too much babbling
Review: The first two-thirds of this book is an excellent reference on the people, places, history, and languages of Middle-Earth. It reminded me of things I have forgotten, such as Elrond's brother being the first king of Numenor, and Galadriel being Elrond's mother-in-law. It made clear some things I was fuzzy about, such as why the three Elven rings are not evil. It is flawed only by the author's pathetic political correctness. The last third contains the author's worthless babbling about his interpretation of a book that needs no interpretation. He should have stuck to a more factual account of Tolkien's influences. Without the last third, I would have rated the book four stars. Without the political correctness, five.
Rating:
Summary: Bloodless, but knowledgeable
Review: The well-established Dummies format, with its lists and charts and boxed tips, is fine for negotiating your way around a computer program, but to treat Tolkien this way makes his work as bloodless as a computer program. It also falsifies Tolkien's subcreation to treat it so dogmatically. This book, like Michael Perry's "Untangling Tolkien" and Michael Stanton's "Hobbits, Elves and Wizards" before it, is all "Lord of the Rings" and a little "Silmarillion"; it doesn't engage with "The History of Middle-earth" at all. The obligatory cartoons by Rich Tennant are amusing, though Patrick Wynne could have done much better, both in art and humor. Fortunately Harvey has a better grip on the internal facts of Middle-earth than either Perry or Stanton, his speculations though somewhat wayward are less voluminous than Perry's, and he's also by far the best writer of the three. So this book will do the reader very little harm, especially as nobody to whom its facts would be plot spoilers could possibly get through its doggedness. Harvey does shine in his final chapter, where he lists ten differences between the book and the first two Jackson films, astutely noting how these affect characterization and plot emphasis.
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