I am a huge Lord of the Rings Fan. Huge. In fact, I'm getting a tattoo of Galadriel on Friday. I will however admit that I'm a bit rusty on the entire lore of Tolkien's world. So when I was selected to be an advance reviewer on The Ultimate Unofficial Guide to Tolkien's World by Antony Cummins, I was stoked! I'm not usually an "unofficial guide of" reader, but this had me interested as the world of Tolkien is so complex and has sooo many nuances.
The Positives:
I dove right into it as soon as I got it, and spent quite a bit of time reading through it. I think the foreward addresses the need for this book the best - Lord of the Rings et al are behemoths to get into as a series. There are so many books, so many pages, and so many side stories. For someone new to Lord of the Rings, or even a younger reader, it can be daunting and, as Cummins put it "inaccessible", which I totally agree with. I read LOTR when I was about 12, and was hooked, and even then there were aspects that I didn't completely understand (nor care about, sorry JRR). I think the Ultimate Unofficial Guide to Tolkiens World fills a void for young readers, or readers who frankly don't have the patience to get through the entire series. It also provides a nice chronological view of the series, and does it well and in an approachable way. There's a handy glossary and a handful of illustrations to help the reader along the way.
The Not As Positives:
I am reading this book several months before it's publishing date, so I do have some edits/recommendations/nit picks. The illustrations are handy but could use some tuning up or more detail. I love the basic language used, but it would be so so beneficial to readers to provide references (footnotes, book call outs) throughout each one of the sections, so readers who are following along can have some sort of reference to the source material.
Takeaways:
4/5 Stars (again pre-publishing!). Knocking a star off right now as the reference material doesn't have the call outs, and as a LOTR fan already, this isn't something that I'd say ALL LOTR fans need in their shelf, but is good for those who are more familiar with the films. I will definitely be purchasing this to have in my collection, and eventually to help introduce my kids one day to the World of Tolkien. It makes it so accessible. Great read, and thank you so much for putting this all together.
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