Dark Lord – DaneCobain.com

Title: The Children of Hurin

Author: J. R. R. Tolkien

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 320

Rating: 8/10

J. R. R. Tolkien – The Children of Hurin

This book is an interesting one because, despite it being written by J. R. R. Tolkien, it was released when I was in my teens, and so I devoured it almost immediately after its release. Edited by Christopher Tolkien from his father’s notes, it’s also interesting to see how Christopher, the author’s youngest son, was just as involved and enthralled by Middle Earth as his father was.

Children of Hurin tells us more of the history of Middle Earth, in the days when Morgoth was the Dark Lord, and there is at least a little bit of crossover here between references from elsewhere in the series, but to me it felt almost entirely original, and whilst it still clearly retained all of the hallmarks of Tolkien’s writing, it was also softened somewhat by the contemporary editing, which is one of the factors that made me enjoy this book almost as much as (if not more than) the original Lord of the Rings trilogy.

That’s the thing with Tolkien’s work – once you feel at home in Middle Earth, it doesn’t matter which period in time you’re reading about. After all, many of the characters cross between timelines due to their immortality or their status as a hero of legends, and so reading any of Tolkien’s books is like picking up a bucket of water from a waterfall. If Tolkien himself had been immortal, I can imagine him living out his days writing endless additions to the world of Middle Earth, without ever running out of unfinished story lines and ideas that he hadn’t executed.

Overall, then, I’d definitely recommend this to you if you’re a fan of Tolkien’s – I read this before I read The Silmarillion, and while I liked both, I’m glad I did.

J.R.R. Tolkien

Click here to buy The Children of Hurin.

Title: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Author: J. K. Rowling

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 768

Rating: 7/10

J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Wow – I reported in my review of Order of the Phoenix that it was the longest Harry Potter book by page count, but Half-Blood Prince is only two pages shorter. Considering that each of my reviews takes the page count of the book that I’m reviewing and turns it into a word count for the article, I have my work cut out for me.

I didn’t think much of Half-Blood Prince, which is why I only gave it a 7/10 – it was professional and proficient, but it just wasn’t as magical as the other books in the series. Oh, sure – it was necessary. If anything, the story line itself is developed just as much (if not more) in this book than it is anywhere else. It’s just that it doesn’t feel like much fun whist it’s all happening, and a high-profile character gets killed off, too.

Broadly speaking, the plot introduces the concept of horcruxes, which are fragments of Lord Voldemort’s soul which were introduced to a number of different objects to preserve the Dark Lord’s immortality. One such horcrux was Tom Riddle’s diary, which you might remember from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I’m not going to spoil it by telling you what each of those horcruxes are, but I will tell you that in this book, Harry learns that it falls to him to hunt them down and to destroy them.

J. K. Rowling

This is largely what happens in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which was much more exciting. In contrast, the vast majority of this book seems like it’s only present to set the scene for the final book in the series. That said, it is interesting to watch as the wizarding world is forced to deal with the return of the Death Eaters, and the slow descent into fear which characterises the return to power of He Who Must Not Be Named. There’s a darker feel throughout it, and it feels like Rowing’s universe has finally matured, like it’s grown from a child to an adult.

Now, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t read this book – I’m just saying that it’s something of a let down, if you compare it to the rest of the books in the series. It just didn’t seem to have the same magic – it was a bit like reading a Rick Riordan book instead of a J. K. Rowling book. Competent enough, but somehow missing that secret ingredient. You should still read Half-Blood Prince, if only to discover who the titular character is, but you should read each of the books in order. That way, you’ll be so deeply invested in the series that by the time that you get here, you’ll be determined to see it through.

I don’t mean to be too harsh on Half-Blood Prince, because there’s nothing inherently wrong with it – indeed, I’m sure there are fans out there who regard it as their favourite book in the series – but I will say that it just didn’t do it for me. That’s all I have to say on the matter, really – it didn’t feel right, it didn’t hit home, and I just didn’t think much of it either whilst I was reading it or afterwards.

J. K. Rowling Quote On Robert Galbraith

Unfortunately, I still have another 200 words to fill, so let’s take a look at its reception. It’s certainly true that it broke a lot of records, although many of those same records were eventually beaten by its successor, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and it also sold a lot of copies. My counterargument to that would be that Rowling could have released anything and she still would’ve received the same reception – and, like I said, there’s nothing that’s actually wrong with it.

Perhaps part of my attitude towards it stems from its release date – I was about sixteen at the time, and so I had a lot of other things on my mind. But I still read it pretty quickly, and I’d had high hopes for it after The Order of the Phoenix, which was one of my favourites. It just didn’t live up to my expectations, and that’s a shame – other than Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which is much more of a ‘children’s book‘, no other book in the series left such a lasting impression of mediocrity. But hey ho – not to worry about it, just read your way through it and then move on to Deathly Hallows!