THOUGHTS
The Silmarillion is a great read. It is well written, well thought out, and provides tons of intriguing backstory and history to its characters and universe. It’s also not going to appeal to most people. The reason for this comes from the nature of the book itself, the genre it falls into, and the subject matter of the story. First, the book was not published during the life of the author and, one could argue, was never intended to be a book, at least not in its current state. Though Tolkien’s son did a good job editing it to a readable state, the volume is still fundamentally rough and unfinished. Additionally, the book’s genre is atypical, written as a type of mythology for the English people. The stylistic choices made due to its genre may well turn off a majority of people given that it does not read like a novel. Finally, the Silmarillion is written in the Middle Earth universe, so people who are not fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings will probably face an uphill battle reading it. For these reasons, the Venn diagram intersection of people who are likely to fully enjoy this book is pretty small. If, however, you do fit into the niche this book was published for, it is a fantastic read and well worth putting on your reading list.