The Ultimate Unofficial Guide to Tolkien’s World

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for a fair review:

I'm not a Tolkien superfan, and I'm definitely not a Tolkien scholar. While I like his work, I find some of his prose a little too esoteric to always fully comprehend. Yeah, I've read more than just The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but I have my limits. Still, I want to understand all the interlocking references, meanings and backstories throughout his works. Previously, I turned to several frequently contradictory wiki websites and occasionally asked reddit. It was a low and grinding process that made it hard to quickly check references.

This book is meant to fix that problem. It's not a glossary or a long list of names, it's a comprehensive guide for someone who knows something about Tolkien's Legendarium, but not everything. I imagine it will also be a good resource for people who are largely familiar with his entire work, but want a reference or a refresher that doesn't just remind, but explains.

Having all the information easily available in consistent prose, in chronological order, helps lay bare connections between stories that may have been difficult to glean earlier, with the stories spread out in multiple books, over the multiple different prose styles Tolkien employed. In general, I can't praise the book enough for being as chronological as possible. For the first time, I finally fully understand the different Ages constantly referenced in Tolkien's work, and I've been familiar with it for years and years.

The book also does an excellent job of drawing parallels– when we run into a story that will have important ramifications later, that's mentioned. When we run into a story that's referenced elsewhere, it's noted. Motifs and themes are elaborated on as well– the repeated references to floods, the difference between north and south, etc. The book analyzes as well as explains, making it an excellent beginner's guide and refresher. The wording is clear and precise.

There are some things that fans may not like, though I can understand why they are there. This is meant to be a guide, so it answers questions that are often accepted as ambiguous or unanswerable by fandom at large (it comes down strongly on one side of the Balrogs-Wings debate, for example). It also features extremely minimalist illustrations, which may seem odd for fans more accustomed to the lush maximalism of most Tolkien depictions. This is, I believe, ultimately a good choice: the illustrations are meant to clarify information, not distract the reader, but it is a marked change from how Tolkien's works are usually visually depicted.

Ultimately, I think it's a wonderful guide, and I highly recommend it to anyone who struggles to keep all of the legendarium in mind, or simply wants a refresher that's more comprehensive than a glossary.