Review: The Children of Hurin

It has been several years since I last read The Lord of the Rings, and even longer since I last read The Silmarillion.  Returning to Middle-Earth was a better treat than I had at first expected.  The first time I had read The Silmarillion, in middle-school in the 1980s, I found it to be interesting, although tedious in places.  Two of the longest tales (and therefore the most tedious) were the tales Of Beren and Luthien and Of Turin Turambar.  I found that I just had to plow through them to "get on with the story" of the First Age.

Yet as I matured, subsequent readings of both The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion have left me wanting more.  The books are too short, and lacking the level of detail that I wanted to see.  Fortunately, The Children of Hurin fills some of that in.  I still want more, but I was very pleased to see what I did.  For example, in Of Turin Turambar, the story describes what happens and the interactions of kings and lords, with some description of the lands in which Turin travels, but there is very little detail of daily life.  Yet in The Children of Hurin, we learn more about what life was like in Turin's childhood in Dor-Lomin, especially through his interactions with Sador Labadal.  Turin lives in a hall akin to Anglo-Saxon tradition, with Lady Morwen ruling the hall in her husbands absence.  There are servants and livestock, etc.  In The Silmarillion, there is no indication of this at all.  We don't know if the Edain are a pastoral people, or farmers, or what.  This story gives us some clues. 

There is something almost relaxing in reading the beautiful elvish names in the text, and it is easy to submerse oneself in the tale.  Words like Dor-Lomin, Nargothrond, Finduilas, Nirnaeth Arnoediad, Eithel Ivrin...  they all beg the reader to pause and try out the words aloud.  Tolkien knew what he was doing when he created his languages, and it is a tragedy that they could not have been given full vocabularies. 

The Children of Hurin expands greatly upon the tale as presented in The Silmarillion, and in its expansion it gives more humanity and immediacy to the tale, which makes it more compelling.  It leaves the reader wishing that all the tales of Tolkien had been expanded at least to this degree, and gives some scope to the magnitude of Tolkien's legacy.  Tolkien led a long and fruitful life, but I wish he had lived at least another century or two so he could have had the time to flesh out the rest of his world and give it the treatment it deserves. 

Movie Review: The Hobbit

This past weekend I went to see The Hobbit. These days I don't get out to the movies much, so I really have to want to see it in order to make the effort.

 Prior to seeing The Hobbit I had heard that critics were saying "it's too long, unless you're a Tolkien geek." That made me think that Peter Jackson got it right. While naturally making the movies is a money-making venture, I also think that a good part of Jackson's motivations is to do Tolkien's work justice, and to make the movies something that will last decades, rather than a film that will start strong and flame out in a few weeks to be forgotten and/or forever reviled as trash (q.v., anything made by Michael Bay).

The Hobbit

In preparation for the movie coming out next week, I am rereading The Hobbitfor the first time in years. I had quite forgotten how fast the story reads.  Sure, the prose can be sometimes plodding, but they the dwarves zip right along from the Shire to Trolls to Rivendell to Goblin-Town in as many chapters.  Over the years the story has lost none of its charm, however. 

The Pirates of Alnari

It has been a long road, but my first novel, The Pirates of Alnari is now live on the Amazon Kindle Store.  The Pirates of Alnari is a hard fantasy novel that involves revenge, intrigue, lots of swordfights, and yes, pirates. So if any of that sounds interesting to you, run on over to Amazon and buy it! And tell your friends!  :)

To quote the Amazon description:

Martyn and Arycke are two young nobles forced into hiding after experiencing an act of unspeakable violence. They buy passage on the Isalian frigate Selene, but after a bloody battle against two pirate vessels, Martyn and Arycke find themselves shipwrecked castaways along with a beautiful young woman, her ever-watchful grandfather, and the rest of the Selene's crew.
Unfortunately for the survivors, they now find themselves stranded within reach of the pirate city of Alnari. In short order, Martyn and Arycke find themselves fighting for their lives, not only against marauding bands of savage pirates, but mutinous elements within the Selene's own crew.

The shipwrecked survivors are dragged into a maelstrom of vengeance and intrigue, as rival pirate lords maneuver against each other for dominance over Alnari. Martyn, Arycke, and the rest of the Selene's crew will need every ounce of courage, cunning, and strength they possess if they hope to escape alive...

The Pirates of Alnari is a gritty fantasy adventure story filled with bloody naval battles and vicious sword fights, combining the cutthroat political intrigue of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire with the dashing nautical adventures of Patrick O’Brian.