any thoughts?

[Hero of Satsuma]

Just wondering what everyone's take is on the Tolkien book that is going to be released next month.

 

Children of Hurin was never completed by Tolkien himself. Tolkien's son put the notes together and used them to finish the book.

 

The book is scheduled to be released on April 17th.

[Guest Barmacral]

Could you post a link? I've not heard of this book before.

[Rufae]

I personaly would not like it and would avoid reading it. Well... it would depend on how far it was complete. Are we talking just missing the last chapter or are they just pre-write notes scribbled on the back of envelopes?

 

My point being, I don't think Tolkien meant for them to be published else would have done it himself. I would not as a writer like for a collection of notes to be published without the story being written. Who knows what he meant the story to be or where he wanted to take the storyline?

 

I say let the man rest and stop trying to bilk as much money from him as you can and write your own stuff. Maybe Tolkien's son should take the notes or half written material and then write a new story based on them. That would be a better position I think.

[Hero of Satsuma]

This would have been published by Tolkien himself had he not passed away. The notes that are the basis for the book had been through a number of revisions by Tolkien. It's not like they are scribbled on the back of a napkin.

 

I originally saw the release date for this book on Yahoo! but I googled it to find more info on it. Wikipedia has a brief outline.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Children_of_H%C3%BArin

 

This link gives some info on the premise.

 

http://www.thetolkienwiki.org/wiki.cgi?Unfinished__Tales/The__Tale__of__the__Children__of__H%FArin

[Werthead]

Much of the book has already been published as part of Unfinished Tales and The History of Middle-earth series. However, there is a pretty big version of the story (written by JRR Tolkien) that has never been published before, explicitly because Christopher Tolkien wanted to use it to help construct this new finalised version of the story. The material in the book is all 100% JRR Tolkien's words. Some editing has been done to make the three different versions of the story sit a little easier alongside one another, but these fall under the changes explicitly authorised by JRR Tolkien before he died (most notably making the characters' names consistent with one another, as Tolkien changed the names and the spellings on a regular basis). Christopher Tolkien has never invented any new Middle-earth fiction himself, despite being offered obsence amounts of money to do so.

 

The Children of Hurin will be worth reading, especially since Alan Lee has produced some outstanding illustrations for the book. It's not comparable in any way, shape or form to the horrific hack-job that Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert have performed on the Dune novels.

[Curtis818]

I'll probably read it. Who better to finish the story than his son? If it were finished by someone else, I might not read it.

[Toy and Minion]

A new booke, eh, never heard this before. Children of Hurin? Sounds like it might be worth reading.