Rating: 
Summary: A Must Read for Tolkien fans
Review: I just finished this book, and I must say it is my favorite of Tolkien's work thus far. That said, this book is not for the beginner. Read The Hobbit and the LOTR trilogy before tackling The Silmarillion. This book gives a lot of great background on stories and people mentioned in the above mentioned books and also details the beginning of the world and the First Age. The last two stories (not a part of The Silmarillion, but in the book): "Akallabeth" and "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age" really bring the entire saga full-circle.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Tolkien's work.
Rating: 
Summary: Slow Going, but good if you make it through
Review: Having read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, I thought I would give Tolkien's tale of the First Age of Middle-Earth a try. This is about the time before the Rings were made, about the very beginnings of Middle-Earth. Tolkien begins in Genesis style, and the entire book reads like the Bible, something between King James and the NIV. Sometimes the sentences are a little hard to understand because of a lack of comma stops and other punctuation, but you quickly get accustomed to it. Anyway, the first bit is very Gensis-like, depicting the creation of Middle-Earth and the gods and goddesses. Then the Elves awake and go to live with the gods, very Garden of Eden.
After some of the Elves leave the gods, the story shows that the action and plot has increased, but the stilted writing style keeps it from being as involved as The Lord of the Rings. There is definitely a plot to this and it is very interesting, but it is clear that Tolkien wrote it to be a history of Middle-Earth, and it reads rather like a history book. Still, the storyline is there, and it is good--you just have to slough through the writing and keep up with countless people and places (fortunately, there's an index to help!)
Bottom Line: Excellent for more hard-core fans who want a history of Middle-Earth, as this one answers several questions raised in The Lord of the Rings, but beware--it is a history, and it reads like one.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing novel
Review: The Silmarillion is one of the best pieces of literature I have read. It is not complete like the Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit, but it is more tragic. The main part of the novel covers a period of five hundred years condensed into less than four hundred pages. There is less detail than usual, and some of the material is gone over very quickly. By reading Unfinished Tales in addition to the Silmarillion, I saw how much information was probably not finished or left out. Despite the fact that this is one of his shorter works and was released by his son, it is my favorite Tolkien novel. The tragedy of the elves is very sad and it moved me. From Feanor to Dior, there was only one or two happy stories. Beren and Luthien and Gondolin, but even they had sad endings. I encourage anyone who likes the Lord of the Rings and wants to learn about Middle Earth to read these novels. But if you want more information about the Lord of the Rings, I think Unfinished Tales has more information about the time period of the War of the Ring. I like this novel and highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Very good, though not meant to be easy reading
Review: Awhile back I read The Silmarillion after reading The Hobbit/LOTR series. I enjoyed the Old Testament inspired beginning of the book of how Middle Earth came to be and the Valar who strived to protect it from Morgoth the first dark lord. It was also interesting reading about the ancestors of characters such as Elrond. However, as many people have mentioned before in their reviews it does get complicated and isn't always easy to digest. At times I had to take notes on the names because I didn't know that there's family trees and an index in the back of the book that's very useful! It's a book that might need to be read over and over in order to fully grasp everything mentioned.
Rating:
Summary: Another great book
Review: The book all Tolkien lovers need. The Silmarillion reads like a history book and really gives you a good basic knowlege of the world of middle earth. This book is not for the faint of heart, for it is full of new names and places; it takes some brain power and concentration to put it all together, but well worth the effort.
Rating:
Summary: Unfinished, yet rewarding
Review: Don't let the reviews citing slowness or complexity scare you off from this tremendous piece of literature. True, the work functions more like a reference material at times (one reviewer has alluded to the constant flipping back and forth to the tables and indices), and this IS a necessary inconvenience until you get more engrossed in the characters and their relationships. But i, personally, was fascinated by the geneology charts and the timelines, and by finding much more info on things that were only alluded to in the Hobbit and LotR...your mileage may vary, as they say. The narrative also should NOT read like the other four works (Hobbit and Trilogy) because the scope and depth of the work is far too broad; Professor Tolkien would have been writing endlessly for 100 years in order to make it read like the other books. His son Christopher has done a masterful job with this text, much better than with the other "Tales" books that he has published more recently. One leaves the Silmarillion with a completed view of the entire history of Elves and Men, including the events of the Third Age and the Rings of Power. For those who watched the films and asked such questions as, "What is all this business about the Elves sailing into the West?" or "How is it that Arwen changes from Elfmaiden to Woman?" or "Who exactly are the Half-Elven?" or -- well, don't want to spoil too much of the third film, or the books themselves... But if you are hungry for more Tolkien after the LotR, this is definitely the book. Take another reviewer's suggestion and borrow it first, if you must, but i don't regret buying my copy, and will buy a hardcover soon. In keeping with the Christian allegory, Silmarillion is the Old Testament whearas the Trilogy and Hobbit are the New Testament. That helped me to process both works.
Rating:
Summary: Unfinished, yet rewarding - part two
Review: Sorry for posting a duplicate of the review...i see no way to delete one of them, so i'll just change the text. One other thing to say: one reviewer laments the "message" of Tolkien's works as being one of hopelessness and of humanity being doomed to failure. The Elves never learned their lessons, and we humans of this Earth don't ever seem to learn ours, either. The desire to possess the Silmarils (the work of their own hands) and to be free of the will of the Valar drove the Elves, ruined them, and destroyed their relationship with Men, Dwarves, and all other created things. The desire for power and for immortality (granted to Elves but not to themselves) drove Men, ruined them, and destroyed their relationships with Elves, Dwarves, and all other created things. Sound familiar? It should, because it's the world in which we continue to live. Have we really come all that far in 5,000-plus years on this planet? So much of the evil and injustice described in this book strikes very close to home with us in this world. We aren't really getting any better, ourselves...
Rating:
Summary: Captivating, but overall hard to read
Review: The Silmarillion is great in the fact that it establishes the origins of Middle Earth and Valinor, and discusses an immense number of characters and events. For the most part, the book is as well-written and coherent as the Lord of the Rings - captivating and in excruciating detail. The 4 stars I give this book are primarily due to its contents - the history of Ea, the Valar and the rest of the characters is fascinating. This book is harder to read however, than LOTR, by as much as LOTR is harder to read than the Hobbit. You will also find that the events and characters are often not explained or introduced in sequence - for example Beren, Luthien and characters/events unique to Silmarillion. While those that have read LOTR may get a good idea of what is happening, I seriously doubt anyone picking up Silmarillion as their first Tolkien book would be able to make sense of things easily. Those who have been able to follow LOTR and Hobbit through maps will also find that the map of Beleriand does not include certain locations pivotal to the story - such as Thangorodrim, Angband and others. To make things worse, this book does not include a general map of Middle Earth, which forces me to pull out my LOTR book every now and then. That said, if you'd like information on the origins of Tolkien's characters, including the Balrogs, mentioned in the Fellowship of the Ring, look no further than Silmarillion. As a piece of literature, the book is a classic - though if you plan to read it, I suggest you read The Hobbit and LOTR books first.
Rating:
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!
Rating: 
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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