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New Tolkien Book Released 'The Children of Hurin'
Zoolander writes "Christopher Tolkien has completed the last book of J.R.R. Tolkien from notes left from his father." The ultimate question is how much of a quality difference will there be; for instance the difference between Dune and Dune: House Atriedes is a pretty big gap. But in my experience, Christopher Tolkien has always taken a good, cautious approach when it comes to his father's work so here's to hoping.
Why am I not surprised ? Any great cultural classic : books or movies , somehow seem to generate more than their fair share of prequels / sequels . It then just smacks of opportunism. I guess its just me , but it seems to dilute the original masterpiece.
After this, Chris is forming an all-star team to create the epic The Dragonweyrs of the Dragon Reborn with the One Ring in Shannara, a Blood of the Fold novel.
The Lord of the Rings reads well. The Hobbit reads well. They show that JRR Tolkien had a good ear for a tale. Everything composited from notes by Christopher Tolkien shows that this wasn't a genetic Tolkien family trait.
The Silmarillion and others read like background information, which is what they were. JRR built up a whole mythos to draw from when writing LoTR. This gave him a good base to produce a rich story. I see the continued publication of these tarted up notes as a poor distraction from the original tale.
You may think me a tired, old, cynic. I'd have to disagree about the tired bit.
I ask you, which is worse, smearing yourself with your parents feces or smearing yourself with your own feces?
Christopher Tolkien needs to take his lips from his dead father's teat.