Hard book to review. The voice performance of Serkis is wonderful and is what kept me going through a book I've started many times and never finished (until now). Tolkien's work, unlike nearly all other fantasy writers, is borne specifically out of the love of languages, and it shows strongly in the worldbuilding, as does his love of the various sagas in European history (the rings being a peculiar recurring motif). But the stories presented here aren't compelling and approachable in the way Hobbit and Lord of the Rings are. They're much closer to the choppy and distant tellings of real world examples like Beowulf. You're not being told them as much as told about them. Compared with (heresy of heresies) something like Fire and Blood, the latter is written to be accessible and to keep some plot and mystery going despite the fictional nonfiction format. Silmarillion by comparison has much more poetic imagery and mythology, it just doesn't translate to a compelling story. Much like the Bible has a tendency to cause eyes to glaze over at too much of the begatting. ( )