Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien

13 reviews

bone_dry's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Genocide, Suicide, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child death, Confinement, Incest, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

mlkao94697's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative relaxing sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The Silmarillion acts as a mythology for Middle Earth, and I think it greatly succeeds in this. It adds so much to the rich lore and world-building put in place in LOTR and also gave so much more context to those stories. I found myself falling in love all over again with Middle Earth. As such, it was quite a dense read, and I'm thankful for the index and family trees in the back of my edition since there are so many names that are thrown around. Plus, there are often multiple names for the same people or places. Tolkien has a unique way of conveying a tremendous amount of information through poetic and endearing stories.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Incest and Slavery

josisteacup's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Given that it's basically a "history book" that chronicals the events from the creation of Middle-earth up until the end of Lord of the Rings its expected to be quite dense. Therefore its best to approach it like a collection of myths or folktales and read one chapter at a time. Otherwise it might be overwhelming. Especially the first chapters about the creation of Middle-earth can be a bit boring because there isn't much plot.

All in all its interesting and I'm thinking about getting the standalone stories of Beren and Luthien, The Fall of Gondolin and The Children of Hurin.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Incest, Slavery, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Colonisation

seanml's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

The Silmarillion is a majestic, winding journey through imagination. Tolkien's visions come to life in a fully realized world filled with grace, beauty, and an encroaching sadness. It is the time of the elves, and though immortal, their time rises and wanes with elegance. 9/10.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Genocide, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, and War

godraed's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It's a work that defies description, a collection of various stories presented as the mythic history of Middle-Earth. It's grand in scope, magisterial in prose, an a marvel to behold. It is Tolkien's darkest work but also contains wonderful pieces of hope that set the stage for his later works. A must-read for any fan of The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings.

This review is for the hardcover edition, which has two maps and contains illustrations from the author. It is an absolutely beautiful edition and looks wonderful on the bookshelf.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Grief, and War

Moderate: Incest, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Deportation

jakepasseri's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

While the prose can be almost biblical and dense, leading to a tough reading experience initially, push past it and youll genuinely find both some of the greatest writing and stories written. Truly a masterpiece

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Murder, and War

Moderate: Suicide, Torture, and Death of parent

Minor: Child death, Incest, Slavery, and Fire/Fire injury

madamenovelist's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism

judassilver's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Incest, Racism, Slavery, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

Minor: Child death, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

aisabel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Genocide, Incest, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

kirkspockreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I FINALLY FINISHED THIS! It only took me about six tries but I DID IT!

I only give this a 3.5 because of the writing style, but if you can get past that because you’re a Tolkien nerd it’s pretty good. Tons of petty family drama with some real Elf Drama Kweens!

Definitely read this slowly and make good use of the index and family trees because you will be absolutely lost without them. Too many similar sounding names!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest and Rape

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Slavery, Torture, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and War