The Ultimate Unofficial Guide to Tolkien’s World

This is absolute quality writing packaged in a well made beautiful chunky book full of illustrations throughout - its a perfect companion to Tolkien's books.In this tome it explains everything in order and used plenty of detail however it is extremely easy to understand breaking things down for new and veteran readers alike.Excellent gift and I highly recommend for everyone!Top job Antony! Tolkien would appreciate your work!

As other reviewers have mentioned, Tolkien's World is large, complex and rich in its own history.Readers of The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and the books published posthumously by his son Christopher will appreciate this Guide.This book is really a History of Middle Earth in the same way as you would expect a book entitled The History of England to be. An account of the events and characters of Middle Earth in chronological order.I say this because some readers of Tolkien may have thought about buying Christopher Tolkien's History of Middle Earth. The latter work is a great achievement and for a Tolkien completist a must have. However, Christopher's History of Middle Earth is concerned more about how his father created Middle Earth, the development of the characters, the revisions and rewrites to the maps and story line etc.It shows how much attention to detail Tolkien put into his world which makes it seem real.However, most people may just wish to read the books/ stories now available such as " Beren and Luthien" but are not sure how they relate to Tolkien's other works.So, this Guide to Middle Earth is invaluable.The book is actually 479 pages.It is well written and makes you appreciate just how deep Tolkien's World really is. This is realised by the fact that that pages 16 to 261 covers events and characters before we even get to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, pages 262 to 438.Tolkien divided his World into Four Ages and he considered The Lord of The Rings as being at the end of the Third Age.In this guide one page is concerned with the Fourth Age as Tolkien did not write as much about this Age. Notable points are mentioned about characters and events and one wonders at what might have been.There are Appendixes which coverTypes of CreaturesPeople and placesNamed items and weaponsTypes of magicEnglish words Tolkien uses but are less commonly used today.There are no maps in this book, but this may have been a copyright issue. There are several books available which illustrate and explain Maps of Middle Earth.I highly recommend this Unofficial Guide.Antony Cummins has made an excellent contribution to understanding Tolkien's Middle Earth.

This was a thorough and interesting summary of all of the Tolkien lore that is so confusing to unravel for anyone who isn't a Tolkien scholar but who loves the world of Lord of the Rings. (I've read the Silmarillion - still baffled) The illustrations weren't great - they broke up the text but didn't really add much else of value to the book and made it seem a bit amateurish, if I'm being harsh.

Beautiful book, concise read that goes into a good amount of detail. Not what I expected from a historian of Ninja & Samurai but I’m here for it!

Made a great present

Saw an enthusiastic recommendation for this book from History Debunked on y,t, and bought it for a nice Christmas present for someone who enjoyed the films and the original books.The recommendation was reliable.Very nice quality paper, printing and binding. Easy legible type face and size. Well written paragraphs on various subjects from the novels. Good book to dip in and out of, you don't have to plough your way through from start to end of the marathon.

It's a great reference guide to the world of Tolkien's Middle Earth, and it does exactly what it says on the tin. Easy to use and great to read, 10/10.

Perfect for any Tolkien fan!

For those that do not have the time nor the patience to sit down and read everything the Tolkien wrote down about the LOTR this is a great book. For those who who have read all or some of what Tolkien wrote it is still a great book just for a quick reference back to other things.

Imho this is an enjoyable, easy to follow reference guide to the wonderful world of J.R.R. Tolkien. I appreciate the hardback aesthetic as well.

As someone who does not know the lore, well, I really enjoyed this book. It gave me a great quick overview of everything I need to know. At times it left me wanting, so I’m hoping a volume two comes in the future.