I cannot imagine a darker Tolkien story than Children of Hurin. In the introduction part, Christopher Tolkien (JRR's son cum editor) mention something about this novel as a fairy tale. Well, a gruesome one indeed.

People should read The Silmarillion first, I guess, although the ending of the Children of Hurin is told there. Their story was one of the most memorable ones, besides the tale of Beren and Luthien. The details of the journey of Hurin's cursed children, Turin and and Nienor...more I cannot imagine a darker Tolkien story than Children of Hurin. In the introduction part, Christopher Tolkien (JRR's son cum editor) mention something about this novel as a fairy tale. Well, a gruesome one indeed.

People should read The Silmarillion first, I guess, although the ending of the Children of Hurin is told there. Their story was one of the most memorable ones, besides the tale of Beren and Luthien. The details of the journey of Hurin's cursed children, Turin and and Nienor, is described with the usual Tolkienese narrative with vividly breathtaking (or sometimes frightening) landscapes, unforgettable, daunting characters and such an elegant, poetic parlance.

The elves, ah the elves! One of the most mysterious creatures in Tolkien's lore, which have had me spellbound since I first read the Lord of the Rings. Here, the elves were the Noldors, who had forsaken Valinor (the land of the Gods) and chose to stay in Middle Earth. Their wars against the Enemy, Morgoth, lasted for hundreds of years, and involving other beings such as Men as their allies. Turin was the son of one of Houses of Men who fought against Morgoth and his evil minions. His bravery was legendary and posed an excellent reading. A certified badass who dared to denounce all bonds and even the Elven high kings.

I shall not waste my time writing about the lineage, the history and all (as I've said before, read Silmarillion first!) so I will directly comment about the story. Well, it is heartbreaking indeed. Utter horror. It is so sad that you could not shed any tears because you feel too overwhelmed. I kid you not. The sorrowful adventures of Turin and Nienor are certainly not for the fainthearted.

Back to Tolkien, I must applaud him for this excellent work of art. I do not read much fantasy, but I think his might be the greatest of them all. The feeling you have when you're reading one of his works is indescribable. He did not just blew me away, but he imprisoned me in the novel's realm and forced me to watch his characters live, fight, love, suffer and ... die.

Suffice to say, Children of Hurin will take you to the dark side of the Tolkien's lore. The evil is nigh, enjoy the ride! ( )

I have read the version in unfinished tales, reading this I thought it would be expanded on a little more that it was. I was a little disappointed, however it is good for people who would probably never purchase Silamrillion or Unfinished tales. It was nice to have for my collection though. ( )

Long, cmplex, and a great escape. ( )

I somehow missed that this book was being published and found out the day it ran out of stock at every bookstore in Seattle! I had to wait a couple days for B&N to get it in, then finished it in two days. Tolkien's epic fantasy style is like liquid chocolate, rich and full with a pleasant aftertaste!If you loved the Silmarillion, you will love this book. If you thought the Silmarillion was too long with too many names, this might be more tolerable for you because it chronicles a very short time frame in Middle Earth. ( )

I've been reading this book for almost a year! It's a serious slog, it actually hurts my brain to read it! It's a good story and gives lots of back story to LOTR, but I have to constantly cross-reference with the maps, appendices and other things to understand it and it's time lines. Maybe that's just me!! I will finish this book...

What does this add to the Silmarillion or Unfinished Tales. Not a thing. Why buy it? Why was this edition created? I get the uncomfortable feeling that this was put out as a crass money grab. Save your money, stick to the original releases. ( )

A fantastic yet very tragic tale of the early ages of Middle earth. Christopher Tolkien does a great job of pieceing together his father's early notes and in this case, poem, into a tale worthy of inclusion into the mythology of the worlds J.R.R. Tolkien created.

This tale of heroes and villians, triumph and tragedy help to flesh out the world as presented in The Silmarillion. ( )

The epic, sad tale of Hurin's son Turin from the ancient times. Ok, the story has almost nothing new if you read The unfinished tales but it's a great book worth reading. ( )

Mostly following the story of Turin, son of Hurin, in the days before the time of "The Fellowship of the Right", this is a very dark tale where the protagonist seems to have one bad thing happen after the other. Any fans of JRRT's other works will love this one. ( )

This book is hard going. Compare the writing here with Tolkien's masterpiece "The Lord of the Rings" or with his wonderfully accessible "The Hobbit" and you will be very disappointed. This is not surprising as this is not a book Tolkien published. Instead, as detailed in the preface, the book has been brought together from Tolkiens noted with a minimum of editorial input, rewriting etc. long after the author's death. This hands off approach was clearly adopted after the complaints over the editorial input into the tales of the equally impenetrable "Silmarillion". But the problem here is that whilst the tale is clearly Tolkien's, it is not at all clear that this was a tale he would ever have published in this form - and had he done so, it would not have read like this.

Tolkien fans will care not a wit though. This is still a wonderfully imagined tale based on some folk literature that the author acknowledges. It reads like an epic tragedy - and that is exactly what it is, but set in the mythology that Tolkien was creating for his Middle Earth.

Set 6,500 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings, this book provides some wonderful insights and background material - and it is an essential book for Tolkien completists.

But that will be the only group who should read this. It is not an entry point into the Lord of the Rings. It is not the book you would buy first - it is the one you would buy last after reading the others.

read as a standalone story I feel it is stilted, unpolished, long and pondering on places and not by any means the best example of Tolkien's work. Still, for its imagination, background material, and the very different character of story which - being based on actual mythologies from several cultures - is intellectually stimulating, I feel I can in good conscience give it three and a half stars. ( )

I can't review this in earnest because I couldn't finish it. I cant' read biographies either because the main character always dies.

It is a while since I read this but overall I enjoyed the story and I did read it farily quickly ... but it wasn't The Hobbit nor Lord of the Rings ... ( )

Story of Turin Turambar, ill-faithed son of Hurin, descendant of the last great House of Man that defied The Great Enemy.

Following the tradition of old ballads and tragedies (not unlike Nibelungs, Beowulf and, why not, Greek tragedies) this one is story of a man whose life was not his own, but one manipulated by forces beyond his control.

Where Turin walks, great sorrow and destruction follows - he is aware of this but just can do nothing about it. Even when he realizes that his harsh temper brings misery to those around him and decides to calm down and live normal life greatest tragedy of all occurs. But even then Turin manages to strike at the heart of the Enemy and bring hope to the troubled lands.

Great read if you are interested in the lore of Tolkiens "universe", one he created as a backstage for his Ring trilogy.

Recommended. ( )

Great book.
Actually, the language is really high and not so easy to understand but i managed to.
Tolkien really is a fantastic writer and the book takes you to his world. ( )

This book was not quite as good as the Lord of the Rings, but still enjoyable. A bit depressing, but still a good read. If you are a fan of Tolkien, I would recommend this book. ( )

I really enjoyed this book, although for me it’s hard not to enjoy anything by Tolkien and his tales of Middle-earth! The story was told differently than the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, it was a very different pace and voice throughout the story were different then what fans of his other works are used to. It was a lot similar to the lost tales or unfinished tales in how it was written, but still a fantastic book. It contains a lot of history where geological lines can be linked to characters we’ve fallen in love with in his other works. It isn’t a very action packed tale, but that is one great thing about Tolkien he can have stories of fantasy that don’t need action packed battle, because his descriptions of the characters, the forests, the great cities these men, elves and dwarves live in, are beautiful. It also made me want to learn more about the histories of Middle-earth and events in the First and Second Ages, before the hobbit, the wars, the dark lords etc. Here you can already see issues of mistrust between men and elves, due to men being to proud, the mistrust of elves versus dwarves is also deep in its roots.

From his beautiful descriptions, to his characters who even with their follies, you don’t dare close the book on, for fear of missing something important about them, I found it very hard to put the book down, as I immersed my self in Middle-earth and all of it’s wonders. I love everything about it, and I’m itching to read more about the histories. Sadly, only own one of them. Great read! Wish I owned the book and it wasn’t a library book, but I guess I have to return it, or else the library police will come for me!

Also, the illustrations by Alan Lee, where phenomenal!

Review can also be found at my book review blog
http://juliebooks.blogspot.com/2009/0... ( )

This is a really nice book to read if you love getting into a good fantasy world, and are familiar with the LotR series and other Tolkien books. This is about Turin, son of Hurin and his doom. It goes from ( )

J.R.R. Tolkien has done it again! Another Middle Earth masterpiece. Albeit, with help from his son, who wrote and edited a majority of the book, as Tolkien was dead when it was published. ( )

This book was decent, but it was not phenomenal. Of all the Tolkien books I have read, this is my least favorite. I found that I could not really get into the story as much with this one.

I would only recommend this book to die hard Tolkien fans in need of a middle earth fix. ( )

The Children of Húrin is Christopher Tolkien’s much-anticipated completion of an unfinished tale of Middle-earth by his father, J.R.R. Tolkien. This story takes place in the lands in the west (beyond the Grey Havens of the Third Age), and during the First Age – a time and place explored in more depth in The Silmarillion. Morgoth is a rebellious Vala who terrorizes the men and elves. Húrin, lord of a group of men, raises an army to fight Morgoth. He is captured and imprisoned, and Morgoth puts a curse on his children: Túrin and Niёnor. The Children of Húrin focuses on the misadventures of the two ill-fated humans.

Although J.R.R. Tolkien set this story aside (to write The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings) and it was heavily edited by his son, one can still hear his voice. The Children of Húrin seems ancient and is written as an archaic narrative. It is somewhat biblical in feel (like The Silmarillion), doesn’t have the whimsy and rhythm of some of his other short works (Tom Bombadil, the Unfinished Tales,etc.) and lacks the depth and characterization of his large works (The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit). However, I very much enjoyed taking a short trip back to Middle-earth. I would recommend this book to fans of Middle-earth and Tolkien – especially those who have read and enjoyed The Silmarillion.

I enjoyed this little trip back to Middle-earth, depressing as it was. The book focuses largely on Túrin, who seems to run into nothing but trouble. It’s wonderful, however, how J.R.R. Tolkien’s voice comes through in this story. The writing is kind of odd…I’m not sure why Christopher Tolkien chose to edit it into prose instead of keeping it as rhymed verse the way his father had written it. It does work, though. Just more Silmarillion than Unfinished Tales.

Speaking of The Silmarillion, he mentions in the appendix (one of several – writing extensive appendices must be genetic) that he left out some of the story because it was already covered in The Silmarillion. That’s just another tidbit of how this book fits into the canon. ( )

Similar to the the Silmarillion in that it's a slower read than the Ring Trilogy, but a good story ( )

A very good retelling of one of the stories first read of in the Silmarillion. The story is tragic, which is to be expected from any story involving the lives of men and elves being intertwined. Why? Because Tolkien seemed to believe that mankind could never be found in the presence beauty without being punished. ( )

This book was tragic tale of adventure and conquest. It was gripping but it didn't keep me on the edge of my seat, but overall it was a great book with lots of interesting characters and plot twists.
- Colton W. ( )

tolkien fantasy- LOTR history ( )

Turin, the son of human lord Hurin and elven lady Morwen, is a crucial force in the battle between good and evil in this epic, fantasy adventure full of intrigue and exciting battle scenes which include the familiar elves, dwarves, orcs, a wily dragon and a malicious dark sorcerer. Begun in 1918, revised several times but never published, this tale of Middle Earth during the Elder Days (thousands of years before the action of The Lord of the Rings) was reconstructed by the author’s son Christopher.