Book review blog

luckat

http://heatseekers.blogspot.com/

Lucille Redmond's Pageturner reviews on Saturdays in the Evening Herald newspaper in Ireland are critiques of the important books of the week. These may or may not be literary novels, but are always 'heatseekers' - novels that readers are asking for in the bookshops. The reviews are sponsored by Dubray, a small Irish-owned chain of bookstores in Dublin.

luckat

Recent reviews: Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, The Children of Hurin by JRR Tolkien et al, Tenderwire by Claire Kilroy, In the Woods by Tana French, The Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill.

luckat

Latest reviews: Redemption Falls by Joseph O'Connor and The Good Husband of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith.

nesf

The Children of Hurin review is pretty poor tbh. It doesn't really critique or say anything worthwhile or meaningful about the book.

luckat

Maybe you could post a better review as a comment on the blog, nesf?

nesf

luckat wrote:

Maybe you could post a better review as a comment on the blog, nesf?

I'm no book reviewer and I know it.

luckat

Not a challenge - just, if you feel the review lacks information that it should have, post that information as a comment. It would help other readers who might feel the same and want the information you offer.

Tar.Aldarion

I don't really know what such a review should even say. The book is just material from his other books removed and put in order. Control C, control V. It is just a slightly different version of "Narn i Hîn Húrin" published in Unfinished Tales in 1980. The narrative doesn't even include Húrin's attempt to reach Gondolin (which gave Morgoth a general idea of the location of the hidden city), nor his journey to Nargothrond, his killing of Mîm the petty-dwarf there, and his return to Doriath with the Nauglamír, the Necklace of the Dwarves,which is indirectly responsible for the death of Thingol and the destruction of Doriath. Doesn't justify the price of the book(even though I picked it up free, thanks luckat).
Unless you are fanatically in love with the story, and know the characters and story well, there is not much in this book for you(nice art though), and maybe the silmarillion/unfinished tales/lost tales would be a better bet...with this just a bit of a nice touch to own.
The details are unlikely to be of interest to the casual reader.
I was surprised at how much pleasure I got out of the book. I still thoroughly enjoyed reading The Children of Húrin and felt that treating the material as a single narrative brought out the emotional power of the Túrin's story.

I disagree with how harsh the review is, with Anglachel, Helms et al not really being important to a review.
While editing fragments together, Christopher declined to insert any connective or explanatory prose of his own, a noble gesture that comes at a cost. However, I will treasure it, as he who loves a book where a chief plot can be a swords... that change their names.

nesf

luckat wrote:

Not a challenge - just, if you feel the review lacks information that it should have, post that information as a comment. It would help other readers who might feel the same and want the information you offer.

I haven't read the book so I don't have an opinion on it really, it was just that as a person who hasn't read the book I didn't find the review very informative. All it told me was this reviewer dislikes either Tolkien or fantasy in general and that this is a book written by Tolkien and in the fantasy genre.

luckat

Oh, nesf, I don't think so. It tells you that the reviewer dislikes a book without a good story.

luckat

New reviews:

The Shadow in the River by Frode Grytten
The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver
The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris

http://heatseekers.blogspot.com

luckat

New reviews:

The Strangler by William Landay
Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan

luckat

New review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)