A review by mlkao94697
The Silmarillion: Illustrated by the Author by J.R.R. Tolkien

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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