[Sell me on] Children of Hurin

[Saru Sponge]

I keep seeing it at the book store. Looks interesting, but I'm on the fence about it. What's awesome about the book?

[ShannonA]

There's a good essay about the book by Tolkien's grandson here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?docId=1000074611

Basically, since Tolkien's death his son, Christopher, has been churning out books of his unfinished writings, which are variously fragments and snippets of various stories, some quite long and some fairly complete. There are at least 14 volumes, starting with The Silmarillion, then going on to Unfinished Tales and then the 12-volume History of Middle Earth.

The Children of Hurin is yet another of these collections. Some of the material has been seen before. I presume the 100 pages or so on Hurin from Unfinished Tales are there. There's also presumably some new material, and it's also apparently a more cohesive and complete collection of these particular stories than anything before.

Personally, as a middling Tolkien fan who's read The Hobbit a few times, the Lord of the Rings a few times, and couldn't get through any of the post-humous collections (though all 14 are sitting on my bookshelves, almost all of them in hardcover), I have about zero interest in The Children of Hurin.

However, reviews seem to be pretty good, and the general word is that it's easier to read and more novelistic than The Silmarillion, for what that's worth.

Anyone who's actually read the book have more to say?