Review: The Silmarillion

The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Silmarillion taunted me from my bookshelf. As my reading time is dwindling I decided to fit it in and see if I can finally get into it. About midway through, I looked up some interviews with people talking about the books and everyone seemed to have the same struggle.

First off, as my mother told me years and years ago, don't expect to go into this trying to discover another Hobbit or Lord of the Rings. It's not written that way. The Silmarillion is presented much like the way Norse myths are written. Each chapter tells a specific story but for the most part they are all interconnected in the telling of the Silmarillion itself which is a story in it's barest form about three gems of light and an Elven family cursed by their own oath. There's a lot more too it, but that's going to be your main plot.

Since it's written from the vantage of someone telling a story, and not dropping you into the story itself, it's very easy to get bored or sidetracked of what is being said. Each character has two or three names, a lot of which are similar to other characters. Then each place gets about five. When all is said and done, I often wondered if I *needed* to know most of them. Sure, it's world building, but it fights against the way the story is presented so much that an entire chapter of explaining the layout of the world splits up the tale itself. Right when the Silmarillion gets good, it takes a step back and distracts itself. Then it's not until the later chapters that everything picks up again.

Originally I was going to rate this three stars but the more I think about the events of the book I do feel it warrants four. It's too good to dismiss for being "inaccessible" at first. The beginning sections about the creation of the world and who the Valir were is not how the rest of the book flows, so bear with it.

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