[Wayne Batson]

Hey, I just discovered that AmazonUK is offering preorders for a novel called The Children of Hurin by JRR Tolkien. Apparently, it was begun by JRRT during the post war years, contemporary to LOTR. Apparently, he got quite far in the manuscript but it was finished and compiled by Christopher Tolkien.

Anyone know anything more on this? Being a LOTR geek, I'm probably going to get it regardless. The amazon teaser summary sounds righteous!

KatG? NOM? SOmeone? ANyone?

[Gildor]

Yeeee, I can't wait for this!

But it looks like BrianC beat you to the punch threadwise.

http://www.sffworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14844

[Evil Agent]

If you really are a LOTR geek, you should probably have read The Silmarillion, in which the story of the Children of Hurin is told. It is also told in expanded form in Unfinished Tales. This is simply going to be an even more expanded version, sold as a book of it's own.

[BrianC]

If you really are a LOTR geek, you should probably have read The Silmarillion, in which the story of the Children of Hurin is told. It is also told in expanded form in Unfinished Tales. This is simply going to be an even more expanded version, sold as a book of it's own.
Yes, and a real LOTR geek'll buy it anyway:) Besides, it's going to be illustrated by Alan Lee, which is probably worth the price of admission alone (to me, at least).

[KatG]

I'm not sure that I qualify as a Tolkein geek. I mean, I've read the guy's stuff, but years ago, and I'm lucky if I can remember the character names in LOTR.

I did hear that his son was finishing some unfinished work of his, and my reaction was the same as when I heard that Herbert's son was doing Dune novels and McCaffrey's son would be working with her to keep doing Pern novels -- a really big sigh. I can't consider it a good thing. I did understand J.K. Rowling teasing that maybe she'll kill off Harry Potter to keep anyone else from writing about him. But of course, they'd just resurrect him if she did, if they want to.

I think that if Tolkein wrote something or an expansion of a story, that has not seen print before, and they want to bring that out as an incomplete ms. of the writer, that's fine. It's the finishing off the author's work for him or her I have trouble with. It's not going to be right because no one writes like any other writer. If you're going to do that, just make a movie from it or something -- a different medium where liberties would have to be taken anyway.

At least, that's my grumpy take on it. I probably will not buy it, but I have nothing against any Tolkein lovers who do. And I'm sure the illustrations will be beautiful. I guess we could consider it a wake for the old man.

[BrianC]

Kat, you should take a look at the original thread. There's a bit of a debate in there about how Christopher Tolkien is and is not like Brian Herbert. I see a big difference in the two, without necessarily making any judgment as to merit.

[Evil Agent]

I agree, read this thread:
http://www.sffworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14844

This will not be like the Dune thing in any way. The Silmarillion, perhaps the best Tolkien book, was heavily edited by Christopher Tolkien (and, apparently, Guy Gavriel Kay) and released posthumously. Comparing this to the Dune thing is just silly.

[Michael B]

I agree, read this thread:
http://www.sffworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14844

This will not be like the Dune thing in any way. The Silmarillion, perhaps the best Tolkien book, was heavily edited by Christopher Tolkien (and, apparently, Guy Gavriel Kay) and released posthumously. Comparing this to the Dune thing is just silly.
I agree. Whilst the Silmarillion wasn't quite my cup of tea, the pre-Dune stuff of Herbert junior is was bad that I posted a comment on Amazon pointing out differences between Dune and pre-Dune. These included basic points such as ages of major characters and technology used.

The pre-pre-Dune stuff is marginally better if you read it out of context. The Road to Dune is a different kettle of fish. The story in which Dune was based is a nice read as you can see where Frank Herbert got some of his ideas from and how he make them more cunning. There is also a short story that will make any dune fan's blood run cold; it certainly made mine.

[KatG]

I'm not saying that they are the same situations, just that my reaction to all cases of this type is pretty much the same. I just in general don't have a great deal of interest in unfinished manuscripts that are then completed by someone else, whether from notes left by the original author or not. My one exception is Dr. Seuss' "Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!," because it's a child's picture book which he had almost completed and already laid out all the text and many sketches.

I am interested in the unfinished manuscripts left behind by authors. I'm not interested in someone patching together an ending for them. I don't have much interest in after-novels written to continue the universe of a particular author, even if the author is collaborating and supervising as McCaffrey is. It's just my personal preference. I also find I have very little interest in tie-in novels from movies and t.v., but I don't mind that other people enjoy them, like my husband. They are often excellently written. But they just don't do it for me. :)

[Evil Agent]

But if you've read The Silmarillion, or Unfinished Tales, you'll see that it is not unfinished. The story of Hurin and his children has an ending. This will just be expanded somehow, I'm not sure of the specifics, but the tale itself is already rather solid and complete.