Book Review: The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien

I actually really like how my copy of this book tells a story. I bought it secondhand at the bookstore and despite it clearly having clearly belonged to someone else before, it was nearly entirely pristine. One can only assume the previous owner picked it up, tried to read it, and then put it down. That's the experience I've heard a lot of people have about The Silmarillion, some of them even huge Lord of the Rings fans.

This honestly made me kind of dread reading this, but I still really wanted to due to me being a big Tolkien fan. So I finally sat myself down and had a look. Let's see how it went.

The Silmarillion in a way is like the Bible, but for the Tolkien universe. It contains history of Middle Earth and beyond, how everything came to be created, where Sauron and Morgoth came from, the tale of Beren and Luthien, etc. 

So, yeah, obviously, this isn't for everyone. Maybe if it was written in a similar style to Lord of the Rings, it wouldn't have been as off-putting for some, as this book reads very much like history books do. Less connection to the characters and dialogue and more describing of events. But did it work for me? Yes, it did. Mostly.

It definitely lost me at some parts, not gonna lie, but overall I liked reading this book, mostly because of the context it gave to some things described in the other books (and to an extent the movies). I hardly knew about Morgoth before this, for example, or the Silmarils. Plus, I love Middle Earth, so getting to actually experience or at least witness how this world was created and what took place in ages long past was really cool if you ask me. 

For this one I'm going to recommend people that like Tolkien's other works to at the very least give this one a try. Maybe don't buy it, pick it up from a library or something. Just to give it a try. If after the first chapter you can't get into this, I think it's safe to say it's not for you. But for me it mostly worked and was a pleasant experience, albeit one where you need to keep yourself focused because of the many names of characters and locations. See for yourself if you like it!

Rating: 4/5