The LOTR series, as books didn’t seem much to me. But reading this I understood why. Becuase with a book you have to have a linear plot, everything has to be orderly and tidy even when it’s not. To write a book you have to make sacrifices.

The Silmarillion really isn’t a book though. It a life work, depicting the mind, and fantasy of Tolkien in great detail, having took decades to weave (and not even being finished).

It’s been some years since last I read it, but for each victory I felt an upwelling in my heart, for each tragedy I weeped, and at the turning of the ages, I longed for things lost to the past.

Tolkien’s ability to take us, and like a river of emotion, sweep us off our feet is illustrated oh-so-effectively in the Silmarillion.

Indeed, the word “epic” does not do it justice.
-Jim