Unlike Tolkien’s previous Middle-earth works, The Silmarillion follows a vast array of characters over long periods of time. It is often disjointed (it was unfinished at the time of his death) and rarely flows as smoothly as The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, but it offers something they only hint at: a history of Middle-earth, including how it came to be and the events that led to those of his other works. Many note that unlike these books, The Silmarillion, reads like a holy text, and they have reason to; Tolkien based this text in some ways off of his own faith - Christianity - and although it is not meant to be an allegorical story (nor are his other novels) or a representation of Christian faith, many parallels can be drawn. Beyond these, two other themes are clearly presented: the constant struggle between good and bad, and the tendency for good things to decay over time. Though it can be a slow read, these ideas are built up masterfully throughout the text, creating perhaps a more emotional experience than anything else in his bibliography. Along with its slow pace, the book brings other challenges. For one, there are so many names and places that without a list and a map, it can be challenging to keep track. For another, these characters and places are often only mentioned in passing, and then brought up a couple more times with no more clarity and under the assumption that the reader recalls them; this can add to the confusion of keeping track of so many different names (sometimes, two characters even share the same name!), especially in the later sections of the book. A final issue - caused by having so many characters brushed over so quickly - is that it is harder to build an emotional attachment to any single character as in the other books, which is why a prior knowledge of Tolkien’s works and writing style is helpful. Overall, The Silmarillion can be very challenging, but also very rewarding due to the amount of new information available to fans of other Tolkien works. For this reason, it’s not a good idea to jump straight into this novel, but I highly recommend it for those who want a deeper understanding of Tolkien’s universe and have a little extra time on their hands. For this group, it can be an even more transformative read than the conclusion to The Return of the King.