Tolkein never intended for this book to go to print. He used it as background information to lend body to his masterpieces: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. While the Silmarillian may provide information to the die-hard Tolkein fan, don't expect it to evoke the same magic Tolkein's other works weave so adeptly. It contains neither the personal element of seeing Middle Earth through the eyes of the human-like hobbits, nor the redemption of a single coherent plot. This book reads like a history text, which is, in fact, what it was conceived to be.