In Print: The Children of Hurin by JRR Tolkien

Hailed as the first "new" Tolkien book in years, The Children of Hurin went on sale back in April on top of the charts. Being a bit of a Tolkien fan I was very interested for several reasons:

1. Where could this new volume of middle earth lore come from?
2. How can there BE a new tome as JRR Tolkien has been dead for about 30 years?

Those questions were answered in the introduction. This is NOT new work. If you read the Silmarillion, you've read this story already. In fact, when I tell people about the Silmarillion, I say it's dry and there are weird stories, like a blighted family that the son changes his name every three pages. As it turns out, that story I always referred to would end up being spun off into it's own book. This book.

Since this is a story from the ancient days, the villain is the greatest of all time, Melkor the Morgoth Bauglir. The story is about how Hurin crosses the villain and is cursed, him and his entire bloodline. To make it all worse, he's forced to watch as Melkor's malice works it's evil.

Spun off on it's own, the story is easier to take. The added artwork makes the read more entertaining. As a whole, this is a very dark and depressing tale. Don't expect happy hobbits in the shire at the end of this work. It ends in the only way a curse from a malevolent god can, in ruin.

If you like the lore of Tolkien and middle earth, you'll like this, but if you've read The Silmarillion, you've already read this story. You might want to pass.