I so wanted to like this more. I love LOTR and The Hobbit, but this... it's beautifully written, and in many ways evocative, and with another protagonist I could see myself loving it. But Túrin is so deeply, continuously, viciously unpleasant; so self-centred, arrogant and undeserving, that frankly I'm rooting for Morgoth. Our hero could not reach his sticky end soon enough is what I'm saying. Though in fairness to Túrin, his mother and sister are also deeply selfish so this is clearly a family trait - I only complain about them less because their roles in the text are comparatively minor.

I can only advise the residents of Middle-Earth that, if in the dark corner of their lands, they find a bastard child descended from this family they smother it in the cradle. Because otherwise that monstrous self-centredness will slaughter them and everyone else at the earliest opportunity.

Wholly deserving of praise, however, are Alan Lee's illustrations. The one of Glaurung the dragon is I think my favourite Tolkien illustration ever.