[inglor]

Got it. I think I owe Turin an apology...

Inglor

[NancyBrooke]

So, you're enjoying it? Got a discount coupon from Barnes and Noble to buy it, but I'm waffling. Have you read enough to give a review?

[Alassante]

So is it written more like the Trilogy or the Silm, Inglor? I'm debating getting it myself Nancy since I hated Turin in the Silm. I thought his section was frustrating as hell to read. But who knows, maybe I'll owe him an apology as well I wish they had written a story about the House of Finwe instead

[Rhapsody]

[inglor]

Nancy:
I stumbled on the book in Target and, much to my wife's exasperation, stumbled to the check out reading the Introduction. There is a passage there in that explains a great deal of things. I'm saving the rest of the book for a long plane ride on Sunday (South Alabama to Northern British Columbia)so I can't say too much about it
As a Silgeek hoping to turn others, I really hope you get it and get interested in the 1st Age.

Al: As Rhaps can attest, my hatred of Turin is borderline obsessive but I bought the book anyway. But I don't think much of the story has changed. I'll know more on Monday


Inglor

[Ningloreth]

Well... More than a year later.

Who else has read it? I would be very interested to know what you think.

The writing is beautiful--Silmarillion style--made to be recited, like the sagas. And Turin's childhood, with his relationship with Labadal, shows Tolkien at his best. But I found that I could only read a couple of chapters at a time because the tale is so very, very--and so relentlessly--distressing.

[lissaselves]

[Alassante]

I can't bring myself to read it yet. I cannot stand Turin and feel he was more a walking disaster than a poor victim. He caused most of his own undoing. So many others went through worse and handled it better than Mr. Victim-Woe-Is-Me-My-Life-Is-So-Terrible-I'm-Gonna-Change-My-Name-AGAIN-Then-Marry-My-Sister-And-Knock-Her-Up

[lissaselves]

[Viv]

I bought it when it came out and still haven't finished it. It's like a really bad, frustrating slasher film: Turn, when you go into the basement to investigate the creepy sounds at midnight, turn on the goldarned light! Seriously, this character can never force himself to do the logical thing. His motivations are impossible, incoherent, unbelievable. I thought so when I read about him in the Silm, and I still think so.

I hope the last half of the book redeems itself, because so far I'm not all that impressed.

And regarding the scene-level writing, I still think the "Debate of Finrod and Andreth" is by far Tolkien's most sophisticated, seamless, intimate writing.

[lissaselves]

Oh, his motivations are certainly wrong: he is all about pride!

Unfortunately, that makes him seem very human to me; he's a walking disaster, yes, but I can see why he makes his decisions. Every time one wishes he would - just for once - use his brain instead of letting his stubborn pride decied for him, but no, he doesn't.

Don't tell me his type isn't alive and causing trouble to this very day!

[RobinKa]

I love CoH to bits. I pre-ordered the book as soon as I found out that the Polish version would come out a month, or so, later than the English one. And the wait... don't ask! I couldn't stand it, and I was telling my hubby that over and over and he was like, 'Ok, but don't you know that story already? Besides, the longer you wait, the more you will appreciate the moment when you finally get it'. And when I *finally* got it, I swallowed it in three days or so. And since then, I've re-read it many times, both in Polish and English.

Well, I knew what to expect, and I wasn't disappointed in the slightest. I wanted more Beleg, and I got it, plus the excellent inllustrations by Alan Lee. It's of course more of the Silmarillion style, but it's not as much of a chronicle of evens, but a full-blood story, IMO. As for Turin, I've never been fond of him (but it doesn't make him less fascinating a character), to say the least and I can feel sorry for the fact he had a sort of toxic family, but no forgiveness, dude! His pride and stubbornness to keep walking the path of disaster added a whole lot to the doom. He could've turned back, but he didn't. So, unlike Inglor, I don't think I owe Turin an apology.

Btw, hey, Inglor, are you still around?

The book is depressing, yes, but you know, I read it also when I was in hospital last year, feeling rather miserable, and I thought, oh hell, I was still lucky

I agree it would make an awesome movie I can tell you that I had a dream that I won an Oscar for adapting CoH, LOL. And Hugh Jackman played Beleg in that movie. All right, I know, I'm a hopeless fangirl. I'll shut up now.

[lissaselves]

[lissaselves]

[RobinKa]

And here I was wondering what in earth those horses had to do with Hugh Jackman...?

I agree. He is not my ideal Beleg either, but he happened to be in my dream cast -- dunno why, my imagination played tricks on me apparently. He might be a good movie Turin, you're right