The Children of Húrin (Book)/Review by Darth tom

Having discovered this book for a meagre value of only £2.00 in a supermarket, as part of an offer, I must admit to my heavy scepticism. An offer on a book that was supposedly good? Having read all of the novels in The Lord of the Rings series, and noticing this was another precursor, that piqued my interest, and I decided to take a gamble, and I'm very happy to say that it paid off!

Overall/Average: Well, I must admit that it truly was a fantastic book, and I found myself preferring it over the actual books in the Lord of the Rings trilogy! Wether it was because I've only read this once, and it was fresh, I don't know, but this book contained a certain haunting beauty and sadness, which I found brilliant.

Literary ability: After beginning to read, I discovered that the literary ability and use of literary devices was lacking. There were very little of those, and I found it lacking in heavy descriptive detail, and missing much heavy description altogether. Was this a bad thing? Well, normally, yes. However, the literary expertise of Tolkien instead used a selection of very few but very well chosen powerful and emotive literary devices, using very few powerful and strong descriptions, to give you a fantastic picture.

Plot: During the beginning, the plot did, in a few places, seem to drag a bit, however, towards the later end of the book, the plot sped up, and, although the plot of the first half of the book was nothing special (interesting, but not fantastic) the second half of the book had a very detailed and interesting plot, which had me gripped.

Characters: The characters in the novels contained a certain archaic element, as do all Tolkiens books, and they had detailed and imaginative personalities. There were not many main characters, however the small amount used by Tolkien was used with much experience and imagination, making some very interesying characters. However, I would have liked to have seen a few more.

Illustrations: I must admit, the illustrations I could see upon the front cover and intermittently in the novel really gripped me, as they truly were drawn to a tremendous standard. As well as a line black and white drawing at the beginning and end of each chapter, there was the front cover and eight full page full colour paintings, which truly were beautiful. The illustrations really accentuated the haunting beauty of a great novel.