Visualizing Middle-earth

Rating:
Summary: An extremely good book
Review: I bought this book after reading the reviews here and I was not disappointed. It's so obvious someone is trying to spoil the sales of this book I can't believe Amazon is accepting the reviews.

Let me tell you what you will find in Visualizing Middle-earth. You will read some of the best-researched and best-written essays on Middle-earth. Hands down. Martinez has all the books. He reads them. He digs up loads of facts and puts them together in such a way that you know you have been to Middle-earth.

One of the better essays IMHO is "Love, Middle-earth style". The title reminds me of the old tv show and Martinez delivers what I expected. He talks about the love stories in Tolkien's books. Along the way you find out that Beren had a sister named Hiril. You also learn the history of "The Mariner's Tale". Martinez knows where it was first mentioned in print and when it was first published.

There is no better scholarship in this field than what Martinez has to offer. He knows the stories inside out. He gives all the references you need to check his facts. And he covers the histories with so much detail you just come away wanting to know more. And you know what? That is exactly how you feel after you read Tolkien's books. Martinez got it right. If being a REAL Tolkien scholar means getting it wrong, I'll take Martinez over any other scholar any day.

That's a real no-brainer. Just buy the book and enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: Beware
Review: I can only laugh at the glib attempts to describe this book as "fannish". What else would you call a book which talks about Middle-earth? It's a great read and is written by one of the masters. Most people never get past the window dressing. Martinez is one of the most thorough and thoughtful writers in the Tolkien field. His expertise is only questioned by those who wish they knew as much as he does. He provides plenty of quotes from Tolkien's books. And there is no better study on magic in any book I have read.

Take any essay at random and you will find that Martinez knows this stuff better than his critics. "Ranger for Hire" starts out with a detailed reviewed of Arnor's history. By the time Martinez starts to make his point about what the Rangers did, the reader knows where they came from and who they were. His writing style is crisp, informative, and lean to a professional degree. And there are plenty of in-text notes showing you where his quotes come from.

In "Hobbit Tales", Martinez brings together little notes and essays from Tolkien's various books. He speculates on where the Tooks would go on their adventures. He talks about murder and conspiracy in the Shire. The facts are all easily checked...if you have about 20 books. The great thing about Visualizing Middle-earth is that it synthesizes so many of Tolkien's anecdotes. It makes it very easy for people to wander in Tolkien's landscape. It's like having your own personal guide lead you on a tour. You get to see things Tolkien didn't have room for in THE LORD OF THE RINGS.

The book is not supposed to be compared to literary criticism. It isn't criticism. It's ABOUT Middle-earth. You get to see, in Tolkien's own words, what Middle-earth looked like. How it felt. What it meant to live in Middle-earth. This is an incredible journey into the imagination of a great author. No Tolkien library will be complete without Visualizing Middle-earth.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books on Tolkien out there
Review: I can only laugh at the glib attempts to describe this book as "fannish". What else would you call a book which talks about Middle-earth? It's a great read and is written by one of the masters. Most people never get past the window dressing. Martinez is one of the most thorough and thoughtful writers in the Tolkien field. His expertise is only questioned by those who wish they knew as much as he does. He provides plenty of quotes from Tolkien's books. And there is no better study on magic in any book I have read.

Take any essay at random and you will find that Martinez knows this stuff better than his critics. "Ranger for Hire" starts out with a detailed reviewed of Arnor's history. By the time Martinez starts to make his point about what the Rangers did, the reader knows where they came from and who they were. His writing style is crisp, informative, and lean to a professional degree. And there are plenty of in-text notes showing you where his quotes come from.

In "Hobbit Tales", Martinez brings together little notes and essays from Tolkien's various books. He speculates on where the Tooks would go on their adventures. He talks about murder and conspiracy in the Shire. The facts are all easily checked...if you have about 20 books. The great thing about Visualizing Middle-earth is that it synthesizes so many of Tolkien's anecdotes. It makes it very easy for people to wander in Tolkien's landscape. It's like having your own personal guide lead you on a tour. You get to see things Tolkien didn't have room for in THE LORD OF THE RINGS.

The book is not supposed to be compared to literary criticism. It isn't criticism. It's ABOUT Middle-earth. You get to see, in Tolkien's own words, what Middle-earth looked like. How it felt. What it meant to live in Middle-earth. This is an incredible journey into the imagination of a great author. No Tolkien library will be complete without Visualizing Middle-earth.

Rating:
Summary: Well worth the price
Review: I can't understand why anyone would belittle the obvious high quality of the research behind this book. When I picked up Visualizing Middle-earth I thought it would talk about how to make a movie. There are some essays on the movies but the real work is about Middle-earth itself. I really enjoyed "Hobbit Tales, or Never There and Back Again", which reveals many anecdotes about Hobbit history you don't normally find in other books.

Another favorite part is the essay on the Rohirrim. I like the way Martinez carefully reviews all sides of the issue and weighs in fairly. He knows the material and has studied Tolkien's sources well enough. He understands what he is talking about better than many. The examination of the Icelandic sagas is a good example. Martinez picked two lesser-known sagas to show how a typical Icelandic tale is really laid out. He also goes into detail about Iceland's history. Maybe that bores some people who like to skip over relevant facts. But this is an important part of the process of understanding how Tolkien made up his legends.

Martinez also points out that the ancient Germans were around for a long time. He knows their history and culture and his arguments stand on clear fact and logic.

The two essays on the Dwarves are an astounding work of scholarship. The reader simply comes away wondering how Tolkien managed to write so much about the Dwarves and share so little of it. Martinez finds details in the oddest places and puts them together. He also traces the development of Tolkien's literary dwarves from evil creatures to the noble and dignified warriors of the Lord of the Rings.

The history of Arnor, told again and again from different points of view, comes alive under Martinez' hand. He tells the story as if he has lived it. He offers numerous citations from the books and substantiates nearly everything he says. Even after the fall of the kingdom, Eriador remains a busy, bustling place as Martinez talks about how the Shire kept trade going with other survivors.

The one essay sure to raise the hackles of Martinez' critics is the review of the Balrog wings controversy. Wired Magazine says Martinez lived through the Balrog wars, so he must have a first-hand point of view. He covers all the objections to Balrog wings logically. I think he is pretty fair about it. His pro-wing arguments are nothing like the distorted views anti-wingers fight against. Tilting at windmills must be a popular game among Tolkien critics.

But if you buy this book for only one reason, I think it should be for the essay at the very end. "Understanding Magic in Middle-earth" is the longest and most exceptional work in the book. It strikes one as very authoritative and thorough. And Martinez opens with "Magic is very hard to define". He lays it on the line and then proceeds to build a definition which works for Tolkien. Like so many other subjects, Martinez uses magic as an excuse to explore the rich history of Middle-earth. The essay could almost be called "magic through the ages". But by the time you finish reading the essay, it's like a light has just gone on for you. Suddenly, it all makes sense. There is a system to the magic after all. It is beautiful and rhythmic and natural, and not something Tolkien made up out of whimsy.

Buy Visualizing Middle-earth because you love Tolkien and Middle-earth. Ignore it only if you don't have that thirst for more which obviously drove Martinez to write these wonderful essays in the first place. Call them scholarly or fannish, they are among the best literature on Tolkien you'll find.

Rating:
Summary: Simply brilliant
Review: I have enjoyed all of Michael Martinez's essays for several years. He is thorough and keeps an amazing grasp of all the facts about Middle-earth without losing sight of what his readers enjoy most. Mr. Martinez is one of my favorite Tolkien critics because he looks at the world inside the book and not the world behind the book. Readers always want to know more about Middle-earth. Even professor Tolkien said so. Michael Martinez makes it possible for the average reader to find out so many interesting things and to understand why professor Tolkien did things just so.

For example, Mr. Martinez speculates on when Sauron took the Dwarf rings of power and why he would have taken them. He suggests that the dragon attacks on the Dwarves may have alarmed Sauron into doing something before all the rings were lost. He supports his theory by looking at the history professor Tolkien gave us about the Dwarves, Sauron, and the dragons. One by one, Mr. Martinez eliminates unlikely possibilities and arrives at very logical conclusions.

In the essay on the rangers, Mr. Martinez looks at the history of Aragorn's family. He very neatly lays out all the clues professor Tolkien put into the stories about where the rangers lived. Every passage in The Lord of the Rings that speaks of the rangers or those who came before them is included. After what seems like a breath-taking whirlwind tour of Eriador, the reader is led directly to the only logical place where Aragorn's people could live. The book does not say so, but Mr. Martinez was vinidcated some time after this essay was written. David Salo, another well-known Tolkien scholar, found a note in the Marquette University archive from the professor's own hand. He had written that Aragorn's people lived precisely where Mr. Martinez said they should be found.

For me, the most touching part of the book is the essay on the "real" heroes of Middle-earth. They were not whom you would expect. Mr. Martinez displays a great talent for unearthing the painful and joyous events in professor Tolkien's life which had a real impact on his writing. I am sure that Tolkien's biographers also share these anecdotes. But Michael Martinez brings them into focus for the Middle-earth student unlike any other author. The death of Geoffrey Bache Smith, a man none of us have known, tugs at the heart when you see how deeply it affected his friend J.R.R. Tolkien.

All the silly debates about who has wings and who is medieval only get in the way of the truly meaningful parts of the book. I am sure Mr. Martinez has his reasons for spurring on the arguments. But to me this book is valuable because its author understands Middle-earth better than anyone else I have had the privilege of reading. Except for J.R.R. Tolkien himself. I cannot recommend this book enough, as all my friends well know!

Rating:
Summary: An excellent collection
Review: I really enjoyed reading Michael's interpretations of Middle-earth. He has a gift for digging deep into the books for clues to solve many riddles Tolkien created. Readers who want to appreciate Middle-earth for all its wonderful stories should buy this book. There is simply nothing else like it and all comparisons to other books are unfair. I think anyone who worries about literary critcism has missed the whole point of Middle-earth.

Professor Tolkien is gone and we cannot hope to read new stories about his world. But Michael Martinez writes entertaining essays which carry the reader along on a magical tour of Middle-earth. Yes, he treats it as if the world were real. But isn't that how Professor Tolkien treated Middle-earth? Isn't that part of why we love Middle-earth so much? How else should one explore Middle-earth? How else should it be visualized?

Rating:
Summary: Great book, but Understanding ME will be even better!
Review: It was through the essays that appear in this book, along with the dozens that followed them that Michael has written for Suite101, that opened the door to me for a wonderful walk down the road of Tolkien fandom. I have always of course been a big fan of LOTR and have read it several times (okay three, but enough to know there is really nothing better out there) but it wasn't until I came across Michael's essays that I really took the plunge into Middle-earth.

That plunge was so deep and so fullfilling, it led me to volunteer my time to Michael to edit two further books of his following this one- Parma Endorian as an eBook (from Free-eBooks.net, their #1 download since Janaury 2002 and behind only Stephen King all time) and the soon to be published Understanding Middle-earth, which is a sequel to this book, only structured differently (and better, if I may say so myself) and twice as long! Keep your eyes peeled for it late summer 2003; if you at all like Visualizing Middle-earth, you'll love Understanding it even more!

Rating:
Summary: This is Tolkien scholarship at its best
Review: Michael Martinez understands Middle-earth as well as anyone I have read. He looks at the world Tolkien created as most readers do. Visualizing Middle-earth explores some of the more interesting points with a clear grasp of the facts. For anyone to question Martinez' scholarship is nuts. He shows where Tolkien drew the lines. Martinez also satisfies the reader's thirst for more knowledge and information.

Why should anyone want to read the dry theories of literary critics anyway? They don't talk about Middle-earth. They try to explain it all away as some escapist fantasy. Martinez lives the fantasy, which is what we all want to do when we read the book. He walks into Tolkien's imagination and unlocks door after door, leaving no hallway unexplored.

But even after an expert like Martinez finishes leading me through Middle-earth I feel the need to know more. His research and scholarship have always inspired me. I wish most writers had his thorough knowledge of the books. How many times have I picked up someone else's book and found simple mistakes? Too many.

You have to know Middle-earth better than Martinez to beat him at this game. Visualizing Middle-earth proves that Tolkien's books are worth studying in depth for their own sake. This is an important book for any serious Tolkien collector. Don't pass it up.

Rating:
Summary: Definitive and insightful!
Review: Over the years their have been numerous heated arguments about Tolkien's works. I used to get upset myself in some of these arguments until I realized one thing. Tolkien's books are fantasy and entertainment and limited only by my imagination. Above all Tolkien wanted his books to be enjoyed. Realizing such I hardly ever read other peoples opinions or enterpretations of his work and instead rely on my own imagination. This is the exception and the first book I have read where I either agreed with everything written or wouldn't be able to argue otherwise. I consider Michael Martinez's writings to be just short of the gospel on all things Middle Earth. He is obviously very learned and insightful and I enjoyed his writings very much. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Tolkien. WELL DONE!

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely one of the best books on Middle-earth
Review: The great Michael Martinez debate continues. The fact is that he is an extremely competent writer who does the research that most other people refuse to do. It is no wonder people get upset when he knocks their pet theories into last year with clear and numerous citations from Tolkien.

Most of the essays don't express personal viewpoints. They summarize the facts that Tolkien himself put down. It's easy enough to confirm that Martinez is not translating or interpreting Middle-earth. He does speculate on some things but he makes it clear when he does so.

Martinez has long been a target for verbal abuse and falsehoods on the Internet. He is not being treated any better here than elsewhere. But the people who are really suffering are those of you who believe the book is not as good as it really is.

A bad book would not require so much attention from the Martinez bashers. He looks straight into Tolkien's work and puts it together in a clear and concise presentation. You just have to read it for yourself to see that he writes well, writes knowledgeably, and leaves the wild interpretations to people who would rather make up their facts.

If you want to know how Tolkien put Middle-earth together, read the History of Middle-earth books. If you want to know what it looked like when Tolkien was finished, read Visualizing Middle-earth. It doesn't get any simpler than that. The scholarship in Visualizing Middle-earth is impeccable. Pick any essay and ask the critics what's wrong with it. They only attack it in general terms. And that is because the work stands on its own. The critics just don't know Middle-earth as well as Martinez does.

The best response to a book like Visualizing Middle-earth is another book. Obviously no one has the ability to rebut Visualizing Middle-earth. If the negative reviews keep you from reading VME, it will be the best-kept secret in Tolkien studies. And you will be the one to miss out.