I Cracked – The Fall of Gondolin

I am a weak. For most of my life, I have operated a strict ‘no pre-order' policy. Although this means I sometimes end up paying a bit extra, and on rare occasions, miss-out, I think it has stood me in good stead.

I have found, through long life experience, that I tend to enjoy an item less when I pre-order than I do if I purchase it when it is already available. My interests are extremely varied, and tend to flit from one thing to another very quickly. Thus, if I pre-order something I’m interesting in at the moment, it is possible, likely even, that I will be significantly less interested by the time it arrives.

But…a few rare things are so close to my heart, that I am confident my interest will be high whenever they arrive. And thus, I have pre-ordered The Fall of Gondolin by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Readers of this blog will long be familiar with my love of Middle-earth, so I don’t think it is worth elaborating upon. I do believe, though, that this book has a special place. I am pretty confident that it is the last time we will get a book, with a Middle-earth story, written by J.R.R. and edited by his son Christopher. And not just any story, but one of the true epics of Middle-earth.

I have no doubt the Tolkien estate is going to continue to make money off Middle-earth after Christopher Tolkien is done (in fact, they already are with the sale of TV rights to Amazon), but I really doubt that anyone in the future will treat the original writings with the same respect, love, and devotion that Christopher has shown in a lifetime of editing his father’s work.

So, in some ways, I think this is it. It is not something I want to miss, and I know it is going to be a book I want to sink into as soon as it is released. Also, I know I'm going to want it in hardback, and not just because of the gorgeous Alan Lee artwork on the dust-jacket!

I am weak, but occasionally, just a little bit of weakness can be fun.