My first post on the new forum...really a test run....I just finished the ?last book by J.R.R. Tolkien....The Children of Hurin. A very different story than the LOTR....darker, tragic, but a necessary chapter in his greater story. Nice color plate illustrations by Alan Lee.
I also picked up the illustrated Silmarillion (Ted Nasmith) ..beautiful.
Amazon had the best prices.
A very brief synopsis -
Hurin, a man, in his resisting Morgoth (think Satan), has a doom placed upon is children. The story centers on his son Turin and the heroic yet very tragic tale of his life...where victory turns to defeat, death to those most dear and ....unwitting incest with its final very tragic outcome. Yet, despite the gloom and doom this is a very good story. From a religous perspective...themes of truth, courage, faith, honor, suffering, steadfastness, despair and loss are presented.
It is written in an "older" style...Tolkien sought to try his hand in a style similar to Anglo-Saxon epic ...Beowulf....so the experience is different than the LOTR. It has more active narration than most modern novels.