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.
Rating: 
Summary: A good fanbook, but not scholarship
Review: This book is easily categorized, and is best judged with an understanding of that category. 'Visualizing' is a book aimed at popular fan readership and is thus what has been called a a "fannish" book. That is not necessarily a qualitative statement, but it does set certain parameters. One need only look through the table of contents, what with chapters on 'Happy Hobbit Holidays,' 'Dear Gandalf' letters modeled on Dear Abby letters, an entire chapter on whether or not Balrogs have wings, to understand the direction and intended audience of this book. The author is an energetic fan of Tolkien and participates on numerous web-sites that discuss various fan issues of Tolkien's works. He is also a fan of 'Zena, Warrior Princess,' and participates regularly in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Gaming conventions. The book clearly reflects interests of this nature. There is, however, very little real scholarship to be found in 'Visualizing Middle Earth'. The book, as has been pointed out, is a collection of on-line essays, most from a popular Tolkien fan website that the author administers. Martinez delves very little into the academic and literary sources behind Tolkien's work, and when he does attempt to do so it becomes clear that he is an amateur scholar in the field of literature. I recommend this book to the many young men and women of highschool age (or those adults who still play D&D on the weekends) who want to explore the popular ideas to be found in 'The Lord of the Rings', but I would urge serious students of Tolkien criticism to look elsewhere. See Tom Shippey's 'Tolkien, Author of the Century', for instance.
Rating: 
Summary: Not all that good in my opinion
Review: This is one of the oddest collections of reviews I have ever read. It seems there are only three types. Those who do not like this book, those who do, and those who think that if someone does not like it then they must have it in for the author (obviously this last group either likes the book or is a friend of the author--maybe the author himself?). Why is it that if someone dislikes the book they must be practicing a poison pen campaign? I do not like it and I am not out to hinder this book's sales. Regardless, this is the first book published by this author. He is an unknown, so how could so many people have it in for him? I found the book to be rather amateurish myself and it was not the Middle Earth that I have visualized in my many reads of Tolkien over the past 20 years. I often disagreed with the viewpoints of the author, and even when he pointed to the books, or to Tolkien's letters as evidence I did not find his proofs that compelling. There are many interpretations of Tolkien's books, and many "visualizations" that can be reached. This author's evidence is not always proof of his personal viewpoints. In fact, I found some of his evidence could be just as easily used to support an opposing opinion. I just did not like the content (though of course anything on Tolkien is inherently interesting in some ways). And I found the writing to be weak and the conclusions to be misguided more often than they were on the mark. As for it being scholarhsip (why this seems to be such a huge debate I do not know), it is not really strictly such. It is a close reading of Tolkien's works and the author comments rarely on the vast literary tradition into which Tolkien's works can be placed or the equally vast body of criticism written on Tolkien. Scholarship would have addressed less pop items and looked more at the linguistics, literary style, past literary influeces (like Old English and mythology). The author, Martinez, really only mentions these in passing and often as an attempt to distance Tolkien from such concerns. In that way more than any other the author is misguided, as Tolkien himself was VERY mush a part of the literary tradition of scholarship. The book is better, in fact, when the author stears clear of real scholarship and concentrates on specific fan issues that have swirled about this body of literature for decades.
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