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| The Children of Hurin | 
 enlarge | Author: J.r.r. Tolkien
Creators: Christopher Tolkien, Alan Lee
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $6.80
You Save: $19.20 (74%)
New (12) Used (14) from $6.13
Avg. Customer Rating:  275 reviews
Sales Rank: 602
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.4 x 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
ASIN: B001CB29ZA
Publication Date: April 17, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 THE CHILDREN OF TURIN BOOK November 30, 2008
I was very pleased with the book and the conditon it was in was perfect! I will order from them again.
 Good, but better for hard core Tolkien fans November 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I rate this book a 3 because it is a true split -- serious Tolkien fans will love it, others may not.
Readers who have delved into more than the Lord of the Rings will enjoy The Children of Hurin. It provides background to Middle Earth and gives the reader a chance to engage in some really thoughtful conversations with others.
If you are a fan only of the LotR trilogy, think before reading this. It is more dry and more compact than the LotR books.
A Worthy Succesor To The Lord Of The Rings November 20, 2008
As a person who read the previous incarnations of this tale in The Silmarillion and The Unfinished Tales, it's safe to say that I was already a fan of this book before it was ever released. However, I'm pleased to see that this was more than just a cheap attempt to milk the cow by putting out the same story multiple times as George Lucas keeps doing with his Star Wars re-releases. The Children of Hurin contains several never before seen chapters and illustrations which help to further expand the story.
As it goes, this is probably the darkest of the tales J.R.R. Tolkien ever wrote. It's very bleak and grim, but that's where the magic of this story takes place. Rather than manufacture artificial escapes for the heroes of this book as he did in The Lord of the Rings, the heroes in this book really get their butts handed to them. The heroism of the good guys in this story stems from their resilience in the face of overwhelming odds, not necessarily their victories. The one thing I truly love about Tolkien's fantasy universe is that evil is not this single entity that you can confront and destroy. It's built into the very fabric of the world and proves to be indestructible by any means known to the inhabitants of Middle-earth.
The main character Turin, is as complex a character as has ever been devised in fantasy. Because of his father's defiance of Morgoth, the original dark lord of Middle-earth, Turin spends the better part of his life trying to dodge the curse that has been called down upon him by Morgoth. Turin's family suffers dearly because of Morgoth's curse. Turin's greatest defense against the power of Morgoth, is his resilience, which proves to be the highest level of valor that he can acheive in the face of Morgoth's unrelenting evil.
This is a tragedy not unlike Hamlet or Oedipus, except it draws upon familiar Tolkienesque conventions for its impact. This book takes place during the First Age of the Middle-earth when the world was just taking shape and the race of men had just been introduced into it. The world is ruled by all-powerful gods called Valar. Hence, the battle between good and evil is more primeval than in the later ages of the world.
As in Tolkien's previous books, Middle-earth proves to be a world rich with history. It's a joy to be able to take a glimpse into his world in its founding days long before Hobbits or Ring Wraiths roamed the earth. It's a showcase of the best that Tolkien has to offer and clearly points to the fact that his tales are less about magic than they are about the power of the human spirit and our role in the unfolding of the world's history.
I would recommend The Children of Hurin to any lover of classic fantasy, especially since it's unlikely we'll ever see books like this written again by any writer of our generation.
Very engaging. A book for Tolkien fans and lovers of Medieval style lore. November 16, 2008
This is the first Tolkien book that I have read since the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. I found it engaging and exciting. I had to get by, as some critics noted, the long list of who's who in Middle Earth (I am not into ME lore), but gliding through the names and their lineage I was well rewarded. The personalities are well developed. The story is very dark and tragic with interesting insight by the author on human, Dwarfish and Elvish behavior. This book is a good stand alone book, I enjoyed it without having read the other posthumously published works.
A Dark, Gripping Tragedy November 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Anyone expecting to read a happily ending Tolkien tale of Hobbits returning home at the end of a grand adventure and setting things right, will be disappointed. However, if you want to read a tragedy that is as gripping as Oedipus, then you have found your book. Tales as ancient as Oedipus have been woven into a coherent story on a Northern European canvas; Tolkien created a story loaded with hubris. It is time well spent reading a modern interpretation of excessive human pride and the damage it can create. Alan Lee has several illustrations which draw out some of the inner details of the characters.
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