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What are readers saying about The Children of Hurin?
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-06-24 02:12:02.
(Language: English)
  
This is Tolkien for sure, but don't expect it to be The Hobbit, or even Lord of the Rings. Thankfully, it is not the dry myth of the Silmarillion. But this is dark tragedy. It takes place in the First Age of Middle-Earth (LOTR was the ending of the third age) and involves the darkest evil. Morgoth is the Dark Lord this time and Sauron (the big baddie in LOTR) is just one of his underling captains. So the evil is more pervasive as he conquers the world of men in Middle-Earth. The Hero is Turin, son of Hurin. Morgoth holds Turin's father, the king, hostage by a spell and Hurin is cursed to sit in a stone chair high atop a mountain and watch his kingdom wither and his children (i.e. Turin) face a miserable end. And Turin's is horribly tragic. Raised as a godson of another king after his father's defeat, he grows up resentful and self-centered. The story involves an outlaw existence, unknowing incest, and murder. Dark, yet compelling. The hero dies tragically in the end. Good, not great.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-03-10 03:23:24.
(Language: English)
Another masterpiece by J.R.R Tolkien The Children of Húrin .It takes the readers back to a time long ago before the events of the lotr unfolded , and when the great enemy was still the fallen Vala, Morgoth, and Sauron was only Morgoth's lieutenant. This heroic romance is the tale of the Man, Húrin, who dared to defy Morgoth, and his family's tragic destiny, as it follows his son Túrin Turambar's travels through the lost world of Beleriand..to meet his destiny!!
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A Reader posted a review at 2011-06-24 08:55:02.
(Language: English)
Really sad, but a beautiful story, in it's way.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-01-06 10:12:39.
(Language: English)
Not a bad read. I just felt at many points in the book that I was re-reading The Silmarillion. Don't get me wrong, it had some new takes on things and brought many new things to the table but all in all this certainly has the feel of a Christopher Tolkien book. Altogether, the story of Turin is a masterful epic. He overcomes obstacles only to have his actions thrown back in his face. I don't want to spoil his curse for anyone who has yet to read his story. Read it, it's enjoyable nonetheless.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-05-06 02:15:13.
(Language: English)
Reaching back 6,500 years to the First Age of the world, The Children of Hurin focuses on the family of a man cursed by the Dark Lord Morgoth (of whom Sauron is merely a Lieutenent!). Hurin is captured during the Battle of Unnumbered Tears when the combined hosts of Men and Elves sought to vanquish Morgoth in his fortress known as Angband. Hurin earns the emnity of Morgoth when he refuses to break or even bend to Morgoth's will once captured, and not only is his family cursed, but Morgoth casts a spell so that even while a prisoner, held immobile like stone, he is forced to watch the curse unfold upon his sons and daughter.This is a sad tale, a tragedy, and yet is written in such a way as to believe there is always hope of breaking the curse and setting things aright. A sad but very worthy book to be given an honored place on your bookshelf.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-23 05:48:04.
(Language: English)
A good, although far from exceptional, reconstruction of how Tolkien might have written this canonical story. It is interesting to be able to finally read it in a complete, not-fragmented prose, far from the sketches published in the Silmarillion; and certainly the book is pure Tolkien, and Middle Earth is as fascinating as ever. Yet, the book lacks the magic which caracterizes other major works such as "Lord of the Rings", and is much more dry, both in style and personalizations. A must-read, I daresay, for anyone deeply interested in Tolkien - but not so much for anyone else.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-02-27 05:53:06.
(Language: English)
Since there are already versions of this story in both the Sillmarillion and the Book of Lost Tales, so I wasn't sure even the Tolkien purist needed this work, another of Christopher Tolkien's resurrections from his dad's apparently inexhaustible supplies of papers.But I saw it cheap at a used bookstore, and was pleasantly surprised. The first few pages read more like one of the less interesting parts of the bible - heavy on the genealogy of every character, light on the description and story. But once he settles into the narrative, it's pretty good. Probably the darkest part of Tolkien's mythology. Makes what the short dudes had to go through look easy. No easy victories. Few triumphs. Just a fruitless struggle against the darkness.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-07-24 05:48:25.
(Language: English)
A dark and absorbing tale that's written in the elder-Tolkien style. Readers of the Silmarillion will be familiar with some of the characters and tales - but it's far more of a rip-roaring (if Tolkien can ever be described in that way) epic that probably would've been Peter Jackson's first choice for a Middle Earth film, if it had been written earlier. While it pieces together fragments from JRR's writing (and it's marvelous to read in the appendices how many unfinished poems, stories etc he left to gather dust on his desk - hope for us all) it's a fully formed story with marvelous characters - particularly the accursed Turin. Treachery, magic, war, lust and incest - plus the mighty dragon Glaurung! It's got it all. The first Tolkien blockbuster ;-)
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-03-19 11:06:00.
(Language: English)
How can a fantasy fan resist reading another book from Tolken? Turned out to be a book written by his son, based on Tolken's unpublished stories.Never mind, it was still written in a Tolken style albeit using an old English grammar. Initially it was hard to understand, but after 10 page, I sort of got the hang of it and got into the story. It was soooo tragic though like a greek tragedy with equal amounts of jealousy loyalty and betrayal. Read it in 2 sittings and was completely immersed in the story that when it ended, I felt kinda lost and helpless coz I felt so attached to the characters!
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-06-24 02:08:00.
(Language: English)
This is a great book for fans of Tolkien and Middle Earth. The Children of Hurin is not as accessible as The Hobbit or the LOTR trilogy, but neither is it as involved a read as The Silmarillion (which is written in a bible-like prose and involves myriad characters). The Children of Hurin is a tragedy that focuses on the life of Turin, son of Hurin, and how the curse placed upon his family by the evil Morgoth (the powerful boss of Sauron, baddie from the LOTR trilogy) plays out for he and his sister over their short lives. This story takes place thousands of years prior to the stories in The Hobbit & the LOTR (but involves a few elvish characters directly related to those involved in LOTR). It is a story of how bad-luck and a few character flaws in combination with a curse by a former god can really ruin the life of even the most talented of humans. The Children of Hurin is a quick and easy read and will satiate those looking for a new Tolkien fix.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-06-19 12:06:54.
(Language: English)
This story is dark, make no mistake about that. If you thought the Lord of the Rings, with its Orcs and Ringwraiths and deaths of major characters and nearly-failed quests was dark, I don't know what you'd call this. "The negation of light"? "If you could get below absolute zero on the Kelvin scale, this is what it might be like"? ---- No, not quite as dark as that last one. It's not depressing, oddly enough. A rather clean darkness, this seems to be, not without hope even at the worst moments. I might say that it's tinged, just in tone, with the Catholic idea that everything is able to be saved. I don't want to give the idea that it's religious at all. The background and plot of the story, and even to a large degree the morality of the heros, is much closer to that of the North European pre-Christian epics. Often the tone recalls the Finnish Kalevala or the Volsunga Saga or just general Norse mythology. A few parts even reminded me irresistably of Beowulf (yes, that was by a Christian author, but one like Tolkien in more ways than one). The biggest difference from the Norse myths or the pagan epics lies in something which at first they appear to share in common: the driving force of a curse (or fate) and its effects on the heroes. I hope it won't ruin the story for anyone if I mention that the Hurin of the title starts off the story by gaining the particular emnity of Morgoth. (For those who aren't familiar with the Silmarillion: if you want an idea how bad Morgoth was, you should know that Sauron - the grand bad guy of the Lord of the Rings - was at this time only Morgoth's lieutenant.) To get back at Hurin, Morgoth curses the poor guy's family. The entire tale is simply the story of how this curse works out; of how Morgoth's object is achieved. And it is in this that the story is rooted in a more Catholic view of life. Because unlike pagan mythology, the curse here never directly controls the fate of either of Hurin's children. Rather, Morgoth has to work actively to bring about its effects. He does this by playing on Hurin's son, Turin's, weaknesses - weaknesses such as pride and impulsiveness - till these become the prominent features of Turin's character. Eventually, Turin (and to a lesser degree, the more minor character of his sister, Nienor) becomes the primary agent of his own family's destruction. The difference I keep talking about lies in the fact that never does this destruction become inevitable. Turin continually brings it on through his own choices. Although Morgoth brings about many of the book's critical situations, Turin (or Nienor, or Morwen, their mother) make the choices which cause the real tragedy and the darkness of the book. And this tragedy is simply the fact that the characters play into Morgoths hands, giving him the advantage of a moral as well as physical victory over the children of Hurin.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-06-22 05:12:58.
(Language: English)
Perhaps the saddest book I've ever read, this book, the first "new" Tolkien book in 30 years is "...long and sad in the telling, as are all takes of Middle Earth." While it is beautiful in its composition and deep in its scope, it contains in it at all times a sense of "doom" that seems inescapable, and yet clearly is withing the scope of the freewill of the characters. A tragedy beyond anything Shakespeare ever wrote, one cannot shake a sense of Hamlet. One must appreciate the tone and theme of Silmarillion to fully enjoy this book, though it's scope is more limited both in terms of time and people. Nevertheless, there is a lot to take in and most of Beleriand is used as the canvas for this portrait. The reader will find that the map is a bit more abbreviated than that in the Silmarillion. The nature and effect of evil is a major theme, both in terms of evil personified in Morgoth (to whom Sauron was but a servant), as well as the effects of pride and hubris in the protagonists. The ending had a couple of crescendos, and moved me to tears. Only the Silmarillion has done this to me before.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-10-09 09:31:36.
(Language: English)
I read this to my three-year-old son, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. Its debut at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list speaks to the power Tolkien’s stories still hold for us today, and this story is certainly worthy of it’s author. I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect, especially reading it for the first time together with my impressionable child. In some ways, it was the perfect “starter Tolkien†story for a sword-happy young boy: There were little boys flying on eagles, a hidden kingdom, a band of forested outlaws, a cave-fortress on/in a hill, a fire-breathing dragon, Orcs, Elvish Kings, Queens, and even a princess. The hero, Turin Turambar, had a magical helmet, a black enchanted sword named Gurthang, and performed mythic feats of bravery and strength. From a literary standpoint, Tolkien throws in a reference to every great story from mythology and the kitchen sink, too. There are parallels to the legend of Robin Hood, the biblical story of Ruth, and the Greek tragedy of Oedipus Rex. ****BEGIN SPOILERS**** On the other hand, of all Tolkien’s stories, this most recent work is also his great (and successful) attempt at tragedy. Not only did Turin die at the end (on the point of his own sword, by his own hand), he left a path of misery and death at the end of almost every chapter. He kills his best friend by accident, scorns the advice of all his elders, allows (by neglect) his true love to be killed, marries his sister (unknowingly), and then indirectly causes her death, and that of the man who truly loved her. Then he kills himself. Oh, yeah, and all the while, Turin’s father (Hurin) is being held captive by the villain, who forces him to watch (magically, of course) his son and daughter self-destruct. Now try explaining that to your toddler. ****END SPOILERS**** Nevertheless, it has been good for us, and we’ve talked a lot about anger, consequences, being nice to our friends, and being a good listener. And we’ve talked a lot about death, dying, killing, and violence. I really do think it’s better to face tough issues head on instead of sheltering them from it. I also believe that with the printed word — unlike television or film — a child’s imagination is not capable of conjuring up images he can’t deal with. All in all, I wasn’t expecting it to be over so quickly. This will forever be the first novel I read with my son. The first novel he “experienced†at all, for that matter. I'm glad it was a good one from an "old and trusted family friend." We’re already planning for the next one: I’m thinking maybe Tolkien’s Farmer Giles of Ham or maybe even something by Isaac Asimov or Shakespeare. Of course, he’s already asking me to read Beowulf to him. I’m just glad I’ve found one more common love to share with my son in this life.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-07-04 10:43:00.
(Language: English)
As many others have already written, The Children of Hurin basically takes a story from The Silmarillion, "Of Turin Turambar", and fleshes it out with a more fluid narration and additional details. While you don't have to read the Silmarillion to appreciate this book, it certainly helps - though the introduction is pretty thorough. On the flipside, if you have read the version of the story as presented in the Silmarillion or in the Unfinished Tales, there's still a lot to appreciate here: the enormity of Turin's situation and the myriad tragedies that could only have been caused by fate (and Turin's hamartia) is really emphasized in a way that the staid writing of the Silmarillion fails to do. I think this is because there's a lot more dialogue in this version, which definitely humanizes the characters. Also, Alan Lee's excellent paintings and pencil sketches also add a great visual element to the story which is absent from other versions. So overall, I'd say fantasy and hardcore and maybe even casual Tolkien fans should pick up this book.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-12-08 10:36:00.
(Language: Spanish)
La historia contada en el Silmarillion es triste, pero acá... acá es más triste y terrible
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-05-21 12:33:45.
(Language: English)
I'd wanted to read this book since it was released, but as usual, other things got in the way. I can only say it was well worth the wait.The story expands the version of the same tale found in the Silmarillion, but with much more detail. We learn about Turin's childhood, then some of the decisions he made in later life that led to his ultimate downfall.Throughout, the story is told brilliantly. It isn't at all obvious where its written by Tolkien Sr/Tolkien Jr, I thought it was pretty seamless throughout. If you're a Tolkien fan, you must read this book. If you're a general fantasy fan, this is also a must read. In fact, I'd recommend anyone read this book no-matter what genre you're into - it really is that good.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-07-18 08:31:06.
(Language: English)
What a great reminder of how great a writer, dreamer and genius Tolkien was! Here is a story that pulls from Greek tragedy, Norse mythology and Hebrew history while staying fresh and surprising. The characters are fascinating and their plight will pull you in. Don't expect a happy ending here as you are warned that the tale of Turin is the worst of all Morgath's wicked deeds to men - but in good fashion, Tolkien's ending is not totally bleak. The only downside is that at times (especially in the beginning and middle) it reads like an elaborate history text (as per much of non-LOTR Tolkien). Also there are many scenes where the text is put on fast-forward, and at many times you wish it would just stop and linger for a while. But the beauty of the writing pours through in dialogue and in the fully developed narrative passages. An excellent read. Some knowledge from 'The Silmarillion' will be helpful to get through the beginning chapters, but a patient reader (who uses the provided appendices, genealogies and map) will have no lack of enjoyment.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-10-17 08:32:44.
(Language: English)
A phenomenal book for something published posthumously and perhaps never with the intention of being published. For Tolkien fans who may not have read much more than the Lord of the Rings, it takes awhile to get caught up to speed with the new (or 6000 years prior) locations and characters. A thorough Appendix with family trees and a glossary of names and locations helps those of us Tolkien fans who have not read The Silmarillion. One of my favorite aspects is that Tolkien's characters are "real". So often in literature we find ourselves wanting the heroes to be perfect and infallible. Turin wrestles with his own darkness and struggles with grief, depression, and pride; vices that every human being can identify with. All around I highly recommend this book.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-03-31 12:07:22.
(Language: English)
I remember reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy in junior high and thinking that it was much as Randall describes it in Clerks 2: "All it was was a bunch of people walking!" I think my analysis at the time had more to do with my personal state than the quality of Tolkien's writing, but reading this book certainly encouraged me to go reread his more famous work. Turin is a classic tragic hero, with his sister a matching tragic heroine. He manages, between pride and a curse set upon him, to act completely heroic while also completely screwing up everyone's lives in his path. Despite this, he remains (mostly) sympathetic and his final fate leaves the reader with the feeling that they have read a great myth of truth and sadness. Excellent intro to Tolkien if you want something shorter than LOTR.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-05-30 10:08:40.
(Language: English)
Considering that there is really little material here that the rabid Tolkien fan has not already seen before, I was actually surprised with how enjoyable this rendition of JRRT's Kullervo-meets-Sigurd tale is. Finally brought together in one place, it achieves a tone appropriately sitting between the epic narrative style of LOTR and the Old-Testament pomp of The Silmarillion -- which should make this rendition accessible at last to more than the merely rabid Tolkien fans. And, actually, as one of the major "set pieces" that belongs to the latter, it represents newly effective representation of Chris Tolkien's decades' long efforts to publish his father's deeper mythopoeic creations.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-08-05 12:56:30.
(Language: English)
I thought this book was rather depressing, completely unlike Tolkien's other books. I liked the fact that I could learn more of the history of Tolkien's middle earth without having to read the Silmarillion (which was somewhat boring and hard to read), but although I enjoyed the adventure and deep characterization of this book, the tragic ending left me disappointed. No matter what Turin does to fight Morgoth, his entire family must eventually succumb beneath the thumb of a powerful and yet not completely undefeatable enemy. After reading the LOTR trilogy, the Hobbit, and parts of the Book of Lost Tales and the Silmarillion, I was dismayed to find a book by Tolkien with such a hopeless outlook on life.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-01-19 10:39:40.
(Language: English)
Tolkien fans, rejoice! This is real gold. If you're one of the people who found the books after seeing the movies, this may take some getting into--no hobbits this time around--but once you are into it, it's nothing short of phenomenonal. It's kind of Oedipus Rex, Beowulf, Macbeth, Morte d'Arthur, and Paradise Lost all rolled into one, and yes, it merits comparison with any of those titles. At once a roaring adventure yarn and a tragedy of epic proportions (and it actually deserves the word "epic"). It's wonderful to finally have this tale in a complete and cohesive form, as its author would have intended.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-06-08 01:26:15.
(Language: English)
A dark, depressing Tolkien. This novel, set in the first age of Middle-Earth (way before the Lord of the Rings series and during some of the events in "The Similarion") unfolds the doom of a leader of a men, Hurin and his children, Turin and Neinor, although the book mostly focuses on Turin. I will say that there is no happy ending in Gondor in this book, but that's no surprise if you read the inside of the book flap. Also, the hard-covered version seems quite long, the actual story is only about 250 pages, with pictures, which is short for Tolkien. The rest, of course, is appendixes. Yes, definately a Tolkien.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-07-29 02:18:38.
(Language: English)
The Children of Hurin is a tragedy, the first I've read by Tolkein. He handles it well. Hurin is cursed by Morgoth, and his family suffers terrible consequences. In ancient Norse or Greek legend, the curse would have been in spite of the family's honor, pride, and valour. Tolkein turns this on its head by making the valor, beauty, and pride of Hurin's family the very means by which the curse works its toll. Tolkein puts his characters into novel ethical situations and allows for complex factors to make some of the decisions great and others horrible. It would be interesting to contrast the moral attitude in this story with the moral attitude of the Lord of the Rings. The tale of Turin promotes a passive resistance to evil: outright victory is not possible. The Lord of the Rings, on the other hand, promotes an active resistance, in which the evil character can be, and eventually is, completely defeated. I wonder if this is the difference between Tokein's response to WWI and WWII. Whichever is the case, this story rivals the great classic tragedies.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-03-27 02:06:51.
(Language: English)
i've had a copy of tolkien's "children of hurin" on my bookshelf since august, and just hadn't gotten around to reading it. actually, i had forgotten i had it until i went to pick up "the silmarillion" a few weeks ago and realized it was sitting next to it. well, as you may or may not know, "children of hurin" is actually an expanded narrative of one of the stories told in "the silmarillion". so it made sense to read it first before going back to the original. the first real tolkien "novel" released since "lord of the rings", "children of hurin" absolutely didn't disappoint. it's a bit darker than "lotr" (if that's possible), and has more elements of an almost shakespearean tragedy in it, but it's also a lot shorter (which might be good news to some), and a lot more personal. it focuses largely on the exploits of turin, one of the children of hurin, and does so in a way that's direct enough that we get insight into his character in a way that we really never do with even, say, gandalf or frodo in "lotr". at the same time, going on around turin, always acknowledged but not often brought to the front of the story, is the battle middle-earth is constantly fighting against melkor/morgoth, a war much more massive in size and more destructive than anything "lotr" has to offer. it's an interesting exercise on the part of tolkien, obviously having all this backstory and drama to play with, but choosing to leave it as background for the story of turin's personal struggles. it's a choice i don't think many novelists (or directors for that matter) make today...if there's a backstory that involves lots of things blowing up and the fate of the world hanging in the balance, it becomes the fore-story, and characterization and detail come second to scale.if there are parts of this novel that christopher tolkien directly wrote/edited/filled in after his father's death, i couldn't obviously pick them out, and i'm a pretty experienced tolkien reader. so that was something i had worried about at the time of printing that apparently ended up being a non-issue.it's really, really great to have at least one complete, novelized story of characters from the pre-Third Age middle-earth, and while i would have preferred to have a novelization of the fall of gondolin or the story of beren and luthien (which for my money could still be put up against any of the real arthurian legends any day), it's not like we can really be picky about new material from tolkien nowadays. "children" probably won't attract any new readers on its own: it is fairly short page-wise, but i have to wonder if entering into it unprepared and not knowing much about "the silmarillion" or tolkien's legendarium as a whole might make it nigh undigestible. of course, if you haven't read "the silmarillion" you should do that immediately if you're at all interested in myths, legends, lord of the rings, or just plain old good storytelling. there's never a moment or character wasted in tolkien, and the same goes as usual in "children of hurin"; everything has some sort of significance, and if it's not clear right away what that significance is, it becomes clear 100 pages later when you least expect it. of course tolkien is working with a lot of really basic western mythological tropes, but he never does it in a tired or repetitive way, and when i read writers like stephen r. donaldson or guy gavriel kay or george r.r. martin it puts me in mind of tolkien's ability to weave this type of story where everything eventually means something and the story-world is ultimately cohesive. not necessarily in an every-second-is-dramatically-important way, but just a way that acknowledges that in real life characters and plot lines don't just come and go when it seems most convenient. anyway, obviously i can't recommend this book enough. i've read so much good fiction since i first picked up "lotr" that it was good to read "children of hurin" and be reminded of what it is that makes tolkien head-and-shoulders a better writer than even the best that's out there.
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