Just finished "The Children of Hurin", the latest release in the Tolkien history of Middle Earth. It's very good book IMHO. An expansion of a tale that is scattered across other works such as the tale "Of Turin Turambar" found in The Silmarillion, "The Lay of the Children or Hurin" found in The Lays of Beleriand, "Narn I Hin Hurin" in The Unfinished Tales and "Turambar and the Foaloke" within the 2nd volume of The Book of Lost Tales. Christopher, going over the huge volumes of his father's writings and notes, managed to piece together the full tale of the doom of Morgoth placed on Hurin and his kin using only his father's actual text. Amazingly enough the story flows seamlessly, with no evidence of the means of its resurrection. The book also brings greater depth and breadth to the tale and more development to the characters than found in the other sources mentioned above.I don't think I'm ruining anything by saying it's not a happy tale. It is a tragedy in the classical sense. You know how this is going to end, but you can't help being pulled in, having moments of hope for the characters where it seems the sun is about to break from behind the clouds just as you see the thunderheads gather on the horizon. But along the way you've also got all the cools stuff you'd expect. Battles, curses, elves, dwarves, Dragons (well A Dragon), Orcs, heroic deeds, love lost, love found, tragic consequences of excessive hubris and a rich history and language.
Just remember this isn't Tom Clancey, this is Tolkien and it reads like Tolkien. I place it somewhere between Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, not as dense and academic as the Histories, and definitely not as light and "fluffy" as The Hobbit.
It's also available in Audio book format read by Christopher Lee who does a wonderful job. The unique names of people, places, mountains and rivers and scattered phrases of Sindarin, Quenya and Khuzdul roll off his tongue as clear and natural as if it were his native language.
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